


The Old Law

by annelea



Series: The Renge Clan [2]
Category: Naruto
Genre: F/M, Time Travel
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-06-23
Updated: 2018-11-11
Packaged: 2018-11-17 23:24:37
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 16
Words: 61,909
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11278932
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/annelea/pseuds/annelea
Summary: Married to a man she's not in-love with, Sakura spends her time helping to rebuild Konoha during the day, and avoiding her husband at night... Until he says one thing; "I've missed this with you."  But how could he miss it?  They'd never had sex before!





	1. Wedding Day

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Tou-san Wa Koigitaki Desu](https://archiveofourown.org/external_works/301869) by annelea (me). 



The rebuilding of Konohagakure no Sato was far from finished when the majority of the army left for war three years ago. With so many people gone to fight, very little headway was made by the time they returned. After only two days' rest, every able bodied shinobi was back to work. The civilians whom had built up as much as they could with so few people were finally able to have their couple of days' rest in return. Official ranks didn't matter to anyone at this point, only experience counted. Jonin ended up taking direction from Genin, and civilian contractors taught people of all professions, including office workers, the basics of construction and floor planning.

"Who knew Iruka-sensei knew so much about this kind of thing?" Kiba wondered out loud, running a tape measure down a board, Akamaru holding the end down with a heavy paw.

"I dunno," Tenten answered, using a chalk line to mark the place he pointed to. "It's great that he gets to help design the new school, though."

"Wish I'd paid more attention to him back then," Kiba reminisced. "But we can still pick up some things now, too, eh?"

"Then pay attention this time, baka!" Sakura added, a smirk on her face as she tossed a couple of logs down beside them. "Think this'll be enough to finish that wall?"

"Probably, thanks," Kiba said gratefully. "You going to stay and help us get rid of the branches?"

"Sorry, I have to go get cleaned up," she answered, previous smirk turning into a frown.

"Is it your turn already?" Tenten asked, coming around the large board she and Kiba had been getting ready to cut to put a hand on Sakura's shoulder. Sakura nodded. "Do you know who it'll be?"

She nodded again, "There were a couple of guys that asked for me. Shino actually came straight up to me."

"So, we get to start calling you Aburame Sakura now?"

"Hatake, actually," Sakura groused. "The new council stepped in and said Kakashi-sensei needed a wife at least as strong as a Jonin, and since I've been recognized as surpassing Tsunade-shisho... They put aside the general taboos, promoted me without official testing, and told him he had to marry me or the Mizukage. She was actually asking to marry him, it seems."

"Better the devil you know," Kiba murmured, then spoke up, "It could be worse, you know!"

"What could be worse than being forced to marry the villages' number one pervert?" Sakura asked.

"You could be forced to marry Gaara-sama," he shrugged. "Sure he's not as apt to kill people as he used to be, but can you imagine what kind of lover he'd be? He probably has no idea his dick's useful for anything other than a piss pump. At least Kakashi-sensei will have previous experience and Jiraiya-sama's imagination to use."

Sakura and Tenten both blushed a bit and looked away from Kiba.

"Will they at least let you have your family there?" Tenten asked. "Or are they putting you in a mass wedding like they did with the first group?"

Sakura shook her head, "They're going to call everyone to the new Hokage Tower site in a couple hours. Since Kakashi is going to be Hokage, they want it public and just us. I told my family I was getting married, but they don't know who to yet. They're just so happy thinking I'm going to give them a grandchild and stop being a kunoichi that they'll support the wedding no matter who I marry."

"Oh shit," Kiba whispered, looking down the road a little. "Speaking of, your parents are here."

 

* * *

 

 

"Please tell me I'm not a pedophile for this," Kakashi begged the two men beside him. "Would Terumi-san have been a better decision?"

"No," Genma answered, "I don't think picking either of them is the best idea. You were given too short of a list. Kurenai would be better for you."

"Kurenai already has a kid," Yamato reminded. "Sakura may be scary, Kakashi, but Mei was our enemy until recently. Better to stick with someone shown their loyalty to you by saving your life many times over than someone who you know very little about."

"Kind words from one of the guys that wanted to snag up the youngest, strongest jonin kunoichi Konoha has to offer," Genma frowned. "This whole thing is dirty."

"At least you already had a wife before this mess," Kakashi snapped at him. "You don't have to worry about being sentenced to absolutely no sex for an undetermined amount of time after today. You're already used to living without it."

"Are you kidding?" Genma's eyes bulged a little. "Misaki and I did nothing but have sex the first couple of years. It took her getting pregnant to make her think I didn't want her anymore. Things have slowed down, sure, but we're still getting some at least once a week. With all the energy a young thing like Sakura-chan has, you'll be getting it almost as much, I'm sure!"

"I'm an old man, as far as she's concerned," Kakashi rolled his eyes. "I doubt she'll want to even _sleep_ in the same bed. This marriage is a sham."

"Let her get horny and catch her when she's trying to get off on her own in the shower or something," Yamato suggested. "Or just get comfortable on the sofa and let her catch you jacking off a time or two... naked. If she likes what she sees, you'll have real sex again within a month."

"Have you tried that yourself?" Kakashi and Genma both asked.

Yamato blushed a little, "It's better than slipping her a drug. Besides, Sakura-chan's pretty much immune to drugs anyway."

Kakashi put a hand to his eyes, "I will not do anything of the sort to her. She already knows what the goods look like, she's had her hands in some interesting places while keeping me from bleeding out before. When she's ready to loose her cherry she'll either come to me or find someone to have an affair with. It'll be up to her to keep it secret, though."

"You don't really care if she wants you at all?" Genma questioned. "Wait... did you just say she's still a virgin?"

"I think she is," Kakashi bemoaned.

"She's not," Yamato corrected.

The other two stared at him a moment, waiting for an elaboration.

"She and Nara Shikamaru got drunk and started crying about his dad and Yamanaka Inoichi, with Inoichi's daughter. Chouji picked up Ino when she passed out and put her to bed. Sakura slipped off with Shikamaru. She was kinda dreamy-eyed the whole next day despite the hang-over."

The door opened to the small room they were cloistered away in, an old man stuck his head in. "You have some sort of speech ready? Most of the people are here and so is the bride. It's time."

 

* * *

 

 

Carrying one's husband through the door after the wedding would normally be reserved for gay couples. In this case, however, it was due to the fact that Kakashi had broken his ankle walking down the stairs from the second level of the Hokage Tower, and Sakura thought it would be a fitting way to start their marriage considering the way their relationship had gone the past few years.

"Why couldn't you just heal it right there instead?" he whined as she dumped him into a chair.

"Why can't I embarrass you every now and then?" she asked, kneeling down to work on his ankle. "This way everyone will know that _I_ wear the pants in this marriage."

"Ugh," he leaned his head back and just relaxed as much as possible while she re-set his joint and healed it back into place. "You hungry?"

"You buying this time?" she asked, getting up to sit across from him in another one of the chairs Yamato had made for the apartment.

"I was offering to cook," he corrected. "I don't want to go out and hear one more congratulations from anybody. I certainly don't want to run into Aburame Shino. I heard he proposed to you directly."

"I accepted his proposal," she answered, confirming what he'd been told. "Then they refused to marry us. I was then told that my only options were you, Gaara, or my ex-boyfriend."

"Would that be Shikamaru?" he asked raising a brow.

Her emerald green eyes darkened considerably, "You don't have the right to be upset about me not being a virgin. You haven't been one for over a decade at least."

"I'm not upset about that," he corrected. "I'm just sorry to hear it didn't work out with you two. That way you wouldn't be stuck with an old man."

The venom in her voice was gone now, and her eyes grew sad, "You're not old... I just didn't think you'd like being stuck with someone so young. Someone not as experienced. Someone who doesn't even know you that well."

"You know me better than most," he encouraged. "Genma, Yamato, Chouza, and Kurenai are the only people who could possibly know me better than you."

"Weren't you just offering to cook?" she asked, changing the subject again. This was getting to be too much talk for her right now. She had yet to have such a long conversation with him about anything important before this afternoon.

Point taken, he stood, testing her work. If anything, it felt like she helped his previously inured ankle to be stronger than the uninjured one. Favors like that were the closest thing to affection she had ever shown him.

"Thanks," he half bowed to her before making his way into the kitchen, leaving her alone with her frustrations. He figured cooking would actually allow him to work out a few of his own negative thoughts.

He was happy that these townhouse style apartments had been completed with shinobi in mind. The windows opened easily and allowed a person to crawl through without strain. There were at least two exits to every room, and the same to each apartment. What few belongings each of them were able to save from the wreckage of their previous homes had been brought here yesterday. Furniture was made on the spot by Yamato as his housewarming/wedding presents. Decorative paintings, and other touches were provided by Sai. Anything with ink on it was made to react with the chakra of any of the team mates should they have need of his creations in the future. Naruto bought them bed and bath sets and had them delivered that morning. Ino brought in everything they'd need for the kitchen, and small garden area out front. Chouji brought them all kinds of food and drink options.

The whole place had been prepared for them by their friends while they worked that morning.

Although it was a very sweet thing they did for them, it left Kakashi feeling like he had no control in this environment that was supposed to be his. He probably couldn't even find the extra toilet paper right now, let alone know which drawer held the cooking utensils. Calming down, he thought back to the occasional meals he'd shared with Chouza's and Inoichi's families. The two kitchens had been very similar in organization, and considering it was their children that had stocked and organized this kitchen, he believed he could find most of it as long as he kept focused.

"I'm going to shower," Sakura called into the kitchen before making her way upstairs.

Straight ahead of her at the top of the stairs was the bathroom, to the right was the linen closet. Directly to her right was the door to one bedroom, and if she faced it and looked back to her right again she'd be facing the smaller bedroom. It seemed like their friends had decided to give them some options, she thought, looking through both doors. The larger bedroom had two, single sized beds, and the slightly smaller one held a queen sized bed. Two packs sat between the bedroom doors. One contained all of her previous possessions not already integrated into the apartment, and the other contained Kakashi's. It seemed they understood that the two might or might not feel comfortable sharing a bedroom.

Sakura thought about it for a moment. If she put her pack into the room with two beds, Kakashi would think she was mad at him for all this. If she put her pack into the single bed room, and left his in the hall, it would be asking him to stay away, too. She could always put her pack in one room and his in the other, but she wasn't sure that was a good idea either.

He'd been having nightmares recently. She knew because he'd come to her in the middle of the night several times for sleeping drugs or just company to calm down around. Many times she'd woken up to find him making tea in her temporary housing unit for the both of them, looking like he hadn't slept at all.

Rethinking their positions, she put her pack in the room with the two beds and moved his to the doorway of the same room, not a suggestion, but an invitation. Going back through her things, she pulled out a pair of soft, black work-out shorts, a white sports bra, and a long, white t-shirt she'd stolen from Naruto years ago. It had a few holes in it around the collar and sleeves from use, one one from a shuriken in the shoulder, but it still carried Naruto's scent on it. Oddly, though she didn't like him in a romantic sense, his scent was still something that could lighten her mood during stressful times like this evening.

Heck, she had a t-shirt from every friend and previous team mate she could get. Depending on how she felt, she'd choose a t-shirt to remind her of a particular person's way of dealing with the situation she found herself in and started feeling better soon after. If it was communication or social anxieties, she chose Naruto. If she needed to just be calm and observant, she'd grab Sai. If she was stuck in an urban setting for too long, she'd grab Yamato. If she felt like the world was closing in around her, she'd dig out Kakashi. If she felt like she just wanted to be a kid again, or wanted to remember the simpler past, she'd pull out the tank-top she'd stolen from Sasuke.

Shikamaru had that tank top now. He'd thought it was his one morning when they were re-dressing. She couldn't bring herself to correct him at that time, and she didn't want to tell him now either. He'd probably feel like she wanted Sasuke to be the one making love to her instead. In all honesty, she had loved Shikamaru a lot, but she just couldn't see herself having his child. He was apathetic. His father was apathetic. Any child of his was likely to be the same, and she didn't want to be stuck doing all the housework herself.

Satisfied with her clothing decisions, she checked the bathroom to see if there were towels, soap, shampoo, conditioner, and razors already available. There were three sets, she found. A corner of the tub held her hair care products, the other side holding her soap and razor. Another bottle of soap sat at the back corner of the tub, and Sakura guessed it was Kakashi's. In a basket around the shower head, though, sat a new set of soaps, bubble bath, loofas and pumice stone. Whereas Sakura's scent choices ran in the more fruity range, the one example of Kakashi's seemed to be of a more watery tone. The new bath set offered a range of musks to choose from, some more masculine and others more feminine. A complementary range that would blend with their current choices and not let them clash when they went out into public together. Which ever one of their friends had chosen that was a godsend of understanding.

The blood red towels, black wash cloths, and navy blue hand towels were nice, too. They were plush, just like the black bath mat and toilet lid cover. No detail had been left behind. The shower curtain was black as well, with a leaf pattern in green outlined in red. The curtains were blue, and the tooth brush set was green. Everything matched and was simple despite it's make being luxurious.

The more she investigated, the more she wanted to cry. It was beautiful, simple, comfortable, not too girly, not to masculine. They had made sure she and Kakashi would be comfortable in every way thinkable. Even though so many people lived out of tents and temporary housing right now, their friends had worked hard to find these things for them to enjoy.

"Sakura-chan?"

She spun around quickly. She hadn't heard Kakashi approach, not even sensed it in the least.

"I thought you were going to take a shower."

"I am, it's just..." she gestured to the bathroom. "I was looking at all this. They really put a lot of thought and hard work into all this."

"I hoped you'd like it," he smiled at her.

"What? You already saw everything? When?"

"Well... I didn't see it done," he answered, scratching the back of his head. "They just showed me a few options to get a couple ideas. It does look good. I'm glad the bathroom isn't tiny, either."

"Me, too," she smiled. "How long on dinner?"

"About ten more minutes."

"I'll hurry."

..........

Kakashi had a small dilemma when he saw the white, tapered candlesticks at one corner of the countertop. Beside them were two sets of holders. One set could be mounted to the walls, and the other was designed to be placed on tables. Knowing Sakura needed something more than a quick shower to let her relax for the night, he decided on the faster option of putting a few on the table. The last one was lit the moment he heard the bathroom door open.

With a sigh, he made one more risky decision.

He was going to enjoy this meal at a normal pace.

Pulling off his shirt, he squirmed out of his tank-top and attached mask, tossing them onto a chair in the living room and put on his outer dress shirt again, unbuttoned and untucked. He knew Sakura might think he was trying something, but in all honesty he just wanted to breathe freely. The humidity today was high, and it wasn't like she wouldn't be getting used to seeing his face more often anyway.

When she came down from the bathroom and walked through the living room into the kitchen, they both had to stop and take stock of what they were seeing.

Sakura actually took half a step back before coming closer to the candle-lit kitchen as she looked him over, not sure if she was supposed to be seeing him like this, or if his exposure was purely accidental. The confusion and curiosity on her face amused him a bit, pulling the corners of his lips slightly upward. He hoped she didn't see the light blush on his cheeks when he realized she wasn't just wearing a t-shirt to dinner. The way she moved caused the fabric of her shorts to catch on the long shirt, and the lack of bounce in her now b-cup breasts alerted him to the fact that she had on a tight bra instead of the bindings she usually used, and that she wasn't going to let a nipple point at him during a meal.

Not yet anyway.

Kakashi cursed himself for allowing his mind to go in that direction. That was _not_ the kind of treatment Sakura needed from him right now.

With a little cough to break up the silence, he scratched a little at his rather defined stomach and pulled out a chair for her. "Hungry?"

"What?" she pulled her eyes away from the top of his hips where his dress pants rested and brought them back up to his face. "Oh, yes! Food. Thanks. Looks good."

He chuckled a little to himself before pointing to the chair, "Would you like to sit here or stand there?"

Embarrassment flooded her face as she took the three steps to the offered seat and allowed him to scoot her in to an already filled plate. He'd cooked them steaks, steamed broccoli, white rice, and dinner rolls. A glass of water and a flue of champaign each were ready to drink.

"There's ice cream if there's room for dessert," Kakashi mentioned, seating himself. "It's vanilla, but there are flavored syrups in the pantry."

"Probably Lee's idea to do it that way," Sakura said, remembering a time she saw Lee pouring all kinds of flavors into his dessert.

Well this certainly wasn't going to help her show him she didn't want him sexually.

Too much champaign made sure that they had to carry each other up the stairs. With his pack blocking the door to the room with two beds, they decided to just sleep in their clothes together on the queen bed instead. She had sweated a lot in the evening, and cooled off a lot during the night. He was the warmest object available, and she had remained plastered to him until waking.

The problem of all this was that he had a bit of a hard on, and her hand was clutching it through his pants. It didn't help much that he wasn't asleep, either. He was playing the part well, completely relaxed, deep even breaths, not a single muscle twitch. And there was the problem. If he were truly sleeping, his breath would be a little lighter, and he'd have an occasional twitch of his right pinky toe, one that had nerve damage she just couldn't seem to fix.

He probably knew that she was awake now, too. Suddenly holding her breath had to be a major tip off.

"Can I go pee now?" Kakashi asked.

"Only if you can do it without missing." she warned. "You clean it if you miss."

"Yes, ma'am," he replied, relieved the moment she let go.

He practically fled the bedroom. Once inside the bathroom, he turned on the shower for some white noise, waited a moment, then flushed the empty toilet. He might not have wanted her as his wife, but that didn't change the fact that a warm body pressed against his and feminine fingers laying against his swollen dick felt very good. He stripped down and jumped into the shower the moment the cold water was restored to the shower. This was the best way he knew to relieve his bladder without pissing all over the toilet right now.

The problem was that it wouldn't come out. This wasn't just a normal "pee-on" like he usually got in the morning. This was a genuine hard-on. The very feel of her against him, and the scent of the apple shampoo she'd used had him genuinely turned on for the first time in months. With a sigh, he knew what he had to do. Squirting a little of her conditioner into his palm, he went to work relieving himself.

He didn't skip a beat when the door bell rang. Sakura would take care of whatever they wanted.

Seconds after the door opened, however, the whole situation changed. Gai and Lee were downstairs harassing Sakura downstairs, and she hadn't even let them through the door yet. The shower just got quicker. He forgot jacking off and just washed, flashed to the bedroom to dress, and ran down the stairs. As he'd feared, Sakura was still in the clothes she'd put on the night before, and they noticed.

Lee looked like he wanted to kill Kakashi. Gai was holding him back with a smile.

"Good morning, my rival!" Gai greeted.

"It is _not_ a good morning!" Lee said before Kakashi could respond. "He has taken the virtue of the most pure Sakura-chan!"

Kakashi started backing up the stairs again. "No, I didn't."

Both the big and the mini green beast paused, jaws dropped in disbelief.

"We had dinner and went to sleep," he explained. "Just like that."

"Kakashi," Sakura caught his attention, then pointed at her own face. "Your mask is still off."

He shoved his way between them and grabbed the masked shirt he'd discarded the night before from the chair and teleported back up into the bedroom completely embarrassed. Back downstairs, he could hear that Lee was back in tears again.

This was not going to be an easy day.


	2. Last Resort

Back at the new school, a few of the previously bright and happy workers were slower in pace, and dimmer of spirit. To those that knew the newly wedded Kakashi and Sakura, the ceremony itself was sad. Everyone could see that the two were not happy about marrying one another, the smiles they put on the day before were definitely forced. Not only that, but their own plans of snagging one of the two for themselves was ruined, and the reality of their positions was compounded into their minds. Anyone the new joint-councils deemed of high importance could forget about having any freedom, and those who loved the highly important people could forget ever having a chance with them. Only a very few ended up being allowed to have the one they loved.

One person's displeasure was clearly known, even if he remained as silent as usual.

Kakashi knew. He may have been a mile away, but he knew. The swarm of wasps attacking his head, and the equally large swarm of fire ants latching onto his feet was all the message anyone needed to understand that Aburame Shino was angry with him.

As Shino watched Sakura bring logs to the school area to be cut down into useful boards, he kept his small, insect messengers in constant contact with the scene unfolding at the new Hokage Tower site. He made sure his new victim would not be attacked on mass, but slowly injected with enough venom to make the Hokage's day very very unpleasant. Without help, though, Kakashi could end up in a coma. Of course, they'd probably call Sakura to help him.

His point was proven faster than he'd hoped. An ANBU soldier sprinted straight for Sakura only an hour after Shino had started his assault. Sakura and the man exchanged a few words, and then Sakura stared straight at Shino. The ANBU was begging her to hurry, but she marched up to Shino instead.

He immediately wished he hadn't attacked. Her fist really hurt. So did being dragged a mile down the street to see his work.

When she was done with him, and had Kakashi secured in their new place in bed to sleep off the anti-inflamitories and analgesics, Sakura decided to track down her parents. They would be a few blocks away, helping to lay the foundation for the new Yamanaka Flower Shop. Right now, she wanted to hug her father and hear her mother squawk about how Kizashi spoiled her. Mebuki thought that once Sakura had made Genin, Sakura had become an adult, no longer reliant on her parents for the excessive affections Kizashi showed her.

When she showed up, the last thing she expected was to be hugged tightly by three sets of arms. One pair of smiling green eyes beamed to her right. One pair of sympathetic green eyes shown before her. One pair of questioning blue eyes hovered to her left.

"I'm _so_ happy my baby is so accomplished!" Mebuki greeted. "Chief of the Jonin Medical devision, compared to the Godaime Hokage across the Elemental Nations, and wife of the current Hokage! Who would have thought? What time of the month is it for you right now? Can I go ahead and start planning a baby quilt?"

"Mother, I've been married for _one day_ ," Sakura reminded, pulling away from her. "Besides, he's not exactly attractive enough to think about that right now."

"Eh?" Ino cocked her head. "So, he's not the sexy god we all hoped?"

Sakura shook her head. "Shino attacked him today. All the stinging gave him nasty welts."

Ino smirked briefly, schooling her expression when she caught sight of Mebuki's disappointment.

"Can I have some time with Dad, please?" she asked.

Mebuki rolled her eyes. Whatever Sakura was going to ask of her father, the man would certainly over-indulge her, as far as she was concerned. And he would probably forget to encourage their daughter to spend more "quality" time with her new husband. Still, she could try to steer Ino right. Putting her arm around the blond girl, the two walked off, leaving father and daughter alone.

"I was going to take a break for lunch," Kizashi mentioned. "Join me?"

"Thanks," she nodded, following him to a food stand not far away. "Can we go to the new park to eat? Yamato-taichou made a spot for me there I wanted to show you."

"That was sweet of him," her father commented. "Lead the way."

"So, the pressure is already getting to you?" Kizashi asked.

"Only mom's," Sakura answered. "I was hoping you might be able to help me with Shino. Like I said earlier, he attacked Kakashi this morning."

"Hmm..." Kizashi set down his water and turned to face her. "Honestly, I prefer that our talents end up helping the Hatake line should you ever choose to have Kakashi-san's child."

"Our talents?" Sakura asked. "Of what? Developing coping mechanisms for coping mechanisms?"

Her father laughed. "Funny, but don't you ever wonder why all of the women on my side of the family have refrained from becoming kunoichi for the past eight generations?"

"There haven't been any women on your side for the past eight generations," Sakura reminded. "That's why you, grandpa, and uncle are so nice to me."

"No... there have been two other women born to the Haruno family in that time, but they were forbidden from learning to use their chakra as a tool."

"Why?" she asked, curious. "I haven't heard of any other family forbidding their female members from it."

He nodded. "Do you remember the story I used to tell you about the twins that could travel through time?"

"Of course!" she perked up a little. "I mean, I remember it had a very sad ending, with them being killed by people who should have been their friends."

"Indeed, if you try to fix the past, you can ruin your present," Kizashi said. "Likewise, removing yourself from the present to visit the future can have ill effects. The part I never told you is that most of it was true... and only two clans ever remembered to pass on the warning to their children; the Haruno and the Hatake. It was the marriage of a Haruno woman to a Hatake man that produced those twins."

"Are you sure it wasn't just a folk-tale, Dad?" she suggested, getting nervous. "The closest to time travel anyone has ever gotten was Yondaime-sama."

Kizashi shook his head. "Haruno women are the only ones able to activate this technique, and quite often only by accident. There was a time when kunoichi of our once flourishing clan were key the Daimyo's plans. He used our women to un-do certain historical acts by assassinating the people who got in his way before they ever could. All Haruno women who mastered their kekke genkai were entrusted with our land's history and prosperity.

"The only issue was that they could not go into the future beyond the point at which they left their present to visit the past. The Hatake men, however, had the ability to seemingly skip into the future.It's connected to their White Chakra somehow. Sakumo-san never really explained it all to me.

"Seeing the potential to advance both clans' kekke genkai, the Daimyo worked out a trial marriage between a Haruno girl and a Hatake boy that had both shown extreme potential with their respective kekke genkai. The two were already good friends, so their relationship easily moved from friendship to romance after they were married. The twins were born two years later, and it became apparent that the joining of the two had eliminated the gender restrictions of their respective kekke genkai. Both children carried the White Chakra, and both could travel backwards in time.

"It was when the boy came home telling everyone how he had seen his face carved into a mountain overlooking a village that things turned for the worse for the twins and their parents. He foretold of Konoha as it is today, with five faces carved into the mountainside overlooking a large village where the previously warring clans had decided to settle together.

"Enemies of the two clans infiltrated the farms and orchards of the Haruno and Hatake clans and slaughtered the elders, the young, and the weak while the ninja portions of the clans were traveling home from a recent skirmish two-days away. The Haruno had few ninja, and most of our clan was wiped out. The Hatake had small numbers to begin with; a sickness had swept through their clan that nothing other than natural immunities could prevent years before. This had all happened while the twins were away on their trip to discover how to make Konoha happen.

"When they returned, the two clans were angry with them for not returning in time to warn of the slaughter. The girl was killed by an angry son of the Daimyo who had been preparing to marry a Hatake woman. The boy, however, fled through time, back to an earlier version of Konoha. He was only a boy himself, still, so he could blend in with the other orphans of the day. He never used his abilities to that extent again. The Haruno women ceased using their gifts by a Daimyo instated law. Those that refused to stop were forced to flee to the past, never to return home."

Sakura was quiet for a moment, and Kizashi gave her some time to absorb the story before adding, "I was the first Haruno to become a ninja since those times. The Hatake made sure every one of their clan became a ninja, trying to advance their own abilities and reverse the injustices. The Haruno abandoned even trying to fight the Daimyo. When Namikaze Minato-sama became Hokage, though, he lifted the laws against us, allowing me to officially work as a shinobi for the village, instead of in the shadows like Sarutobi-sama had me. He paved the way for you to be where you are now."

The light in her eyes brightened up a bit. "You don't actually think Naruto's dad was...?"

"I used to have all the old records before the village was destroyed last," he sighed. "I can't prove anything now. Our history is nothing but an old story since those documents were lost. What I do know now is that Kakashi is the last living Hatake, and you are the only Haruno woman of child-bearing age... all the males who would be marriage material have already died without any children of their own to carry on the lineage. Uzumaki Naruto is exactly that, and Uzumaki. He has inherited nothing from his father other than his coloring."

"You think the new council has plans to use any child Kakashi and I might have to change things?" Sakura asked. "That they want tools the way the Daimyo in the story used the Haruno women?"

"I know so," Kizashi answered with a frown. "Part of the agreement Namikaze-sama came to with the council of his day was that the first female offspring of mine would mary Sakumo-san's son. That was the only way the Daimyo and the council would allow the Haruno their freedom again. Your sister was going to be Kakashi's wife, but that all changed when he was forced to kill her. You were born a day later, and they said it would be you in her place."

Forced to kill her? Sakura searched her memory. She didn't even remember ever being told she'd had a sister. Sure, her parents had her later in life than most, but she didn't know she had an older sister.

"What sister?" she asked.

"Your half, sister," he answered. "I was a foolish teenager and had a baby with my girlfriend, Nohara Reiko, before I met your mother."

Her face paled. Nohara Reiko was the mother of Nohara Rin, the very person whose death caused much of the last war. "Son of a bitch... Why didn't you tell me any of this before? Does Kakashi know?"

"Sakumo and I had hoped Kakashi would have found someone by the time their marriage was to take place and the council would drop the arrangement. When the village was leveled, I'd hoped the loss of the documents would prevent your marriage. We hoped the two of you could have love for real, separate from one another, so we didn't tell either of you... I'm sorry, Sakura-chan."

The very sadness in his eyes pulled her to lay a hand on his. She could never get angry with him. Still, being that Kakashi was now the Hokage, he had to have been made aware of the previous arrangements.

"Dad?"

"Yes?"

"Do you think... if he had chosen to marry the Mizukage instead, that our freedom as ninja would be revoked?"

"You'll have to ask him that."


	3. Gunning Down Romance

Dinner that night was particularly quiet for Sakura and Kakashi. They had each done their normal thing and picked up something on the way home, then remembered that the location of home had changed. It took a second more to realize that the amount of food they'd each bought for dinner was only enough for one person. Thankfully, though, there was enough food at the place to cook something.

Neither of them felt like cooking. So, they ate their carry-out in the living room, just staying focused on relaxing again.

At least, Kakashi was trying to relax. Sakura kept shooting questioning looks his way, but refusing to say anything.

"What?" he finally asked, exasperated with her actions.

"Did you marry me just so my father and I could continue being shinobi?" she demanded, more quietly than he was expecting.

He sighed a little, looking around the room, nervously deflecting, "Marrying Mei-san would have been a logistical nightmare."

"So, upholding an arranged wedding for ease... and bowing to the council at the same time... was more acceptable to you? Did you even consider that I didn't know anything about it? I wanted to mary Shino! He's calm, and supportive, and strong enough to take my punches, and smart enough to calm me down, and he's my own age, and-"

"Sakura," he interrupted her tirade, "I don't know everything about the council's plans, but I do know they would have made sure no one in your family could ever work as a ninja again... and I wouldn't rule out death as an option."

"I know," she muttered, curling up in her seat. "Dad said you probably didn't even know until recently."

"I knew they wanted me to marry Rin," he answered. "I didn't know until last month that they'd transferred that obligation to you."

She had no response, and he chose not to say anything more. Both just picked at their food for a bit longer. Sakura was the first to give up on her meal, put it in the fridge, and go up stairs. She chose the room with the separate beds and went to sleep on the one closest to the window.

She lay there for a while, listening for his approach, wondering whether he would want to sleep in the same room, or leave her be. She hoped he'd just leave her be.

Morning's first light was showing by the time Sakura woke alone in the room. She checked the other room, only to find that the bed was as they'd left it the morning before, not one wrinkle different. Quietly making her way down the stairs, she saw the reason why.

Kakashi was asleep on the couch, take-out box still in hand.

Apprehension slowed her decent. Any time a bed was available, Kakashi had taken it. He'd never willingly slept on the couch in the nearly eight years she'd known him. Sure, like most ninja, he could fall asleep pretty much anywhere anytime, but this was just off in all the wrong ways. Studying his form, she realized she couldn't even tell if he was breathing.

On high alert, she jumped the railing and sprinted the three strides to his side, immediately checking for vitals with one hand, the other grabbing a kunai from his leg holster.

Hs fingers were wrapped around her throat in an instant, startled and confused eyes locked onto hers. Sakura held her ground, gently dropping his weapon and then holding up both her hands in surrender. The instant he let her go, she backed off coughing slightly.

"Damn it, Sakura, you scared me!" he admonished.

"You scared me first!" she replied with a scowl. "I thought you were dead!"

"You didn't have to take my kunai."

"You didn't have to choke me!"

Realization hit him hard as she pointed to her throat, angry red marks clearly visible in the lamp lit room. He vaguely remembered falling asleep with it still turned on. Instantly, he felt bad about hurting her like that. She was his team mate, his friend, and now his wife. He should have never touched her like that.

Sakura saw the guilt in his eyes and turned away to heal the small bit of damage he'd done. She didn't want him apologizing over something so small. His grip hadn't even been all that tight, just enough to get her attention and keep her still long enough to be recognized.

"Why were you sleeping down here?" she asked, walking into the kitchen, thirsty.

"Figured you didn't want me near-by," he answered honestly.

"Didn't you hear me get up?"

"No."

"Oh," she looked back at him, offering him a glass of water which he took gratefully. "You didn't look like you were breathing. I was scared."

"Sorry," he gave a small smile, then downed the glass. "Thanks."

She nodded slightly and picked up the spoiled food from the floor, taking it to the kitchen. Kakashi jogged up the stairs and took over the bathroom for the next fifteen minutes or so. If this was their morning, how was the rest of the day going to be?

Sakura continued tidying up the living room and kitchen, careful not to run the sink and clean the dishes staring her down. She'd already pissed him off once today, and giving him an instantly cold shower was another way to invite his anger, something she normally tried to do less than once a month _before_ they were married.

For several months they went on like this, tiptoeing around for a while, then treating one another like they were on a long mission again, or something... trying to find out if they could treat each other as more than a team mate without seeming to be interested in anything else. Of course, this also meant Sakura kept her mouth shut about every time she heard him jack off in the shower, and he turned a blind eye to the nights she decided to spend alone with her hands in her panties, both of them trying to ignore the urges it stirred in their bodies when they silently caught one another and backed off. It didn't happen often. Usually they only gave in to the urge when the other was away.

There were other times when they nearly killed one another. Slowly, though, they quit launching shuriken, kunai, kitchen knives, toilet brushes, books, and pencils at one another each time one accidentally startled the other. They learned to sense each other without trying, and to make noise before entering a room they knew the other was occupying. Usually, a subtle clearing of the throat or short greeting sufficed to put the other at ease.

Kakashi felt that maybe, just maybe, he could continue to live this way for a while. He'd only have to hold out long enough for them to annul their wedding, and perhaps he could convince them to allow Sakura to marry Aburame Shino at last. As for himself, he didn't know. He just hoped they didn't try to set him up with Yamanaka Ino next as her husband had died in an accident weeks after marriage. Through Sakura, Kakashi had learned Ino had grown fond of the man she was forced to marry.

Ino had spent three nights crying into the pillows in the master bedroom, two of those nights in Sakura's arms.

Ino had a wonderful friend. Kakashi stayed out of the way, choosing instead to spend his free time with Gai and catch up on work outs, with Yamato to refocus on ninjutsu, and Genma for beers and gossip. He didn't want to hear about a love accidentally discovered then so quickly taken away. Love wasn't part of his vocabulary lately.

Tonight, Kakashi was curious about Genma. The man was walking oddly from the bar back to their table at the pool hall.

"What happened to you?" Iruka asked for him.

Genma was blushing. "Misaki."

"What happened?" Iruka pressed.

"She wore a hole in my dick yesterday," he whispered.

"She did _what_?" Kurenai demanded. "We just got back yesterday morning... We were only gone for a month!"

"He," Iruka laughed as Kurenai's words drove Genma to blush even more, "is such a lucky man to have married a woman like that!"

"What about you, Hatake?" Genma asked after a few seconds.

"What about me?" he asked, then remembered and answered right away, "I think you have the better end of the deal."

"So, I take it she doesn't like your style?" Genma ribbed, lining up a shot for the nine ball and missing. "You're probably too old to keep up with her in bed, aren't you?"

Kakashi shifted uncomfortably as he lined up for the six ball. "I could keep up..."

"He means," Kurenai interrupted as Kakashi lined up for another ball, the six having gone in the side pocket gently, "he's too much of a gentleman to fuck an ex-student, even if she is legally his wife. Honestly, Kakashi, I don't know why you didn't push for someone else. You're our Hokage. There has to be something you could do to end this nonsense!"

"Be thankful I did," Kakashi told her, backing off for Iruka to take his turn, the younger man aiming for the nine ball Genma had missed. "If I hadn't reminded them that you already have a beautiful little girl shaping up to be quite the powerhouse, they were going to push you to marry Nara Shikamaru, their reasoning being that Youko already calls him daddy."

"I'd flat out refuse!"

"Their second choice for you was the Raikage."

"I'd rather marry Shikamaru."

"Then you understand why I went for Sakura. My other option was the Mizukage."

Kurenai was lining up for her shot now, aiming for the four ball and sinking it in a corner pocket, but scratched on her shot for the eight ball, loosing the game for her and Kakashi despite the fact that Genma and Iruka had done poorly. "How is she dealing with it? I know she beat the snot out of Shino after what he did to you..."

"She tries to hide it," he answered, taking a gulp of the rum and coke Genma had brought, "but she's got a bed partner in the form of a dong. She also knows when to leave me be... It got awkward for a while, since we both actually have some physical attraction to the other."

"So what keeps you apart?"

"We keep trying to kill each other at random times."

That brought a chuckle from the group.

"He also knows I'd send my army of students to his office every day and night for months," Iruka added, "if I ever found out he touched her."

"The way dear Kurenai-chan here," Genma added, "always allowed Konohamaru-kun to pester the Sandaime?"

"Worse," Iruka replied, racking the balls for another game, "I would encourage them and give them ideas from Naruto and my own past expeditions."

"I remember hunting your ass down a couple times for my sensei," Kakashi glared at him. "If you don't keep your students under control, I'll hunt you down again and show them all of your ticklish spots. Second offense means chemical warfare."

"You wouldn't!" Iruka paled.

"Everything you did to Minato-sensei will be revisited upon you first," Kakashi warned. "Then I'll start using your students' tactics against you. Are we clear?"

His eyes were wide as saucers, remembering the tickling jutsu he had invented as a child to pester a girl he liked, but accidentally directed it onto the Yondaime. The stink bombs he set off in the mens' room the same day was meant as a joke on the staff of the school, but it was the Yondaime, again, who walked into the trap first.

"Say 'yes, Hokage-sama,' or I start now."

"Y..yes Ho..Hokage-sama!"

Kurenai patted her friend on the back, shaking her head and smiling, "Come on, Iruka. It's your and my turn to team up."

 

* * *

 

 

Sakura was drunk off her ass. Ino and Naruto walked on either side of her, keeping her in a roughly straight line as they made their way through the park. Ino carried her purse, and Naruto her high heeled shoes, both of them stumbling slightly themselves.

"And the worst part about living with him," Sakura spoke loudly, lamenting her married life, "is that he's actually sexy! I have a gorgeous man for a husband, and I can't touch him! I'm never having sex again because my husband thinks he's too old for me!"

"Well, it's not like you wanted his kids anyway," Naruto reminded.

"I said sex, Naruto," Sakura groused again. "My problem is sex! I could have sex with him without having his kids!"

"Maybe he isn't touching you because he doesn't have any condoms," Ino suggested. "They _are_ banned right now."

"He could pull out..."

"Sakura-chan, Ino-chan," Naruto pulled them to a stop. "I don't want to think about Sakura-chan and Sensei in bed together. I know you want sex, but so does everybody else. I just... I wish..."

Sakura rolled her eyes, "At this point, Naruto, I'd almost be willing to fuck you instead... but I couldn't face you afterwards..."

 


	4. Dear Diary

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> lemon

A couple days passed, and Sakura found herself at a loss with what to do for an afternoon.  All the heavy lifting was done for the most part.  People were being more careful and had gained enough experience not to need a medic every day for work-related accidents.  She actually had time to herself.

Of course, she couldn't enjoy it.  Naruto ran up and dragged her back to his place, refusing to answer any questions.  Ino was there, too, waiting with a tattered, leather bound journal in her hands.  The thing was very old.  It was one of those books that was originally a large scroll that someone cut down into slightly uneven pages and bound together with the leather into a book at a latter date.

She wordlessly handed the book over, a passage already picked out.

_Diary, your former author is gone. Yoriko-chan died a month ago, and this is the first time I've had the courage to put it into words. Nee-chan always said writing was therapeutic, so I guess I will give it a try._

_Yoriko-chan and I were gone to help defend the border when enemies from the East came to our village and wiped out our elders and the children. Only a few of the people our age were left alive, and they blamed me for not seeing it coming. They asked, if I could actually foresee an abundant village here in the future, or if I had intentionally lead them to their deaths. A fight broke out._

_Yoriko-chan was still wounded from the border, as was I. She died protecting me._

_The leaders decided to leave the village, and me with it. I have been excommunicated from both clans._

_Although all of the Hatake and Haruno bodies have been buried (I buried my sister myself, since none of them would), I was left alone with the dead of our enemies (the Sarutobi, the Terumi, and the Yamanaka). So I took a couple days and piled their bodies to burn. It was hard work, seeing as most of them are twice my size. When I am older, I will not be so weak!_

_My face was on that mountainside. I know what I have to do to get it there now._

_I'm going there again. I will live the rest of my life there. I will always remember Yoriko-nee-chan, and I'm going to make her proud!_

_Yours,_

_Minato_

"There's no surname," Sakura noted.

"Look at the date," Naruto pointed out. "This was over three generations before Konoha's founding. I heard they didn't use surnames back then as a way of protecting themselves in civilian towns. No surname, no way to tell if you're an enemy, right? Just like the Shodaime and Madara must have kept their surnames secret in order to be friends."

"Where did you find this?" she asked. "My father can't find any of the old records that we could collaborate this with, not since Pein destroyed everything."

"It just showed up a couple days ago, with this page marked," Ino informed. "I was changing the sheets on our bed when-"

" _Our_?" Sakura raised her eyes at Ino. "Let me get this straight... You two are together now?"

"I didn't have a baby with my first husband, Sakura," Ino reminded. "I'm still required to do so... and since Hinata-chan..."

She broke off, knowing the rest didn't need to be said. Naruto's fists were balling up as he paced away from them. "Hinata-chan fought them about their decision. I even said I'd be willing to marry her. I may not be in-love with her, but I do care for her... I could love her. She's pregnant by the damn bastard right now. He... I saw the marks on her wrists... She was forced! He's in prison and they tied her up for him like a piece of meat!"

Sakura's eyes widened, then narrowed in anger. "Kakashi didn't say anything about that to me."

"He probably doesn't know," Naruto growled, crossing his arms. "I can't get inside the prison, I can't get inside the Hyuuga compound, and I can't get within twenty feet of any council member... not any of them without harming innocents."

"They've kept her locked up since Naruto started asking questions," Ino added. "I can't get in either. It's almost like Danzo's people are in control again, only full scale."

"You think I can?" Sakura leaned back in the chair. "I don't see any way to do it if you two don't have a way."

"Sakura," Ino approached, "Our moms had a long talk the other day. I overheard some things. You have a way that none of us do."

"Sakura-chan, please take the diary," Naruto closed it gently. "It might help you find a way to save her... Maybe you can stop all of this from happening in the first place."

She shook her head. Why didn't they understand already? If she screwed up, she could travel so far back in time... "I could end up causing all of this, Naruto. I don't have any way of getting the proper training for this. If I try it, I could end up trapped in the past, maybe so far in the past that..."

"You could warn everybody of a lot of stuff, Sakura," Naruto pressed. "You can stop a lot of bad things. You could stop Obito, stop Itachi, stop Orochimaru, tell them where to find Madara, help Jiraiya-sama steer Pein to a better path... You could save my dad and my mom... You'd definitely save Hinata then! Everything would be better!"

"Would it?" she asked. "We'd still be allies with Sand, possibly, but we'd still be at odds with the other nations. Other criminals would surface and make trouble between the Nations, and deaths would still happen. I think we need to work on sending _you_ back instead. Maybe _you_ should go back and personally talk each of the Kage down."

"Uh... That might... be a good idea... Since my dad... that's right! I might be able to!"

"NO!" Ino jumped back in. "How well can that possibly go? Think about it. Who was the jinchurriki for each of the demons back then? Just Kurama alone may have had several hosts. You'd never know who to watch out for!"

"I'd know for Kurama, at least," Naruto informed.

"How?"

"Well, there's the fact that he knows, plus my mom told me."

"Name them." Sakura demanded.

"My mom, and Tsunade-baa-san's Obaa-san were the last two of them."

Sakura snatched the book away from him, "Fine then. Since I already know how to survive Kurama's attacks, and your father's probably the only other person that could catch me back then, I'll go. I'll just have to steer clear of Kaka-sensei, Tsunade-shisho, Jiraiya-sama, Sandaime-sama, my parents, Ino's parents, our friends' parents, and all of our former sensei _without_ being suspicious enough to get caught..."

"You'll do it?"

"I'll try... but only as far back as thirty years, understand? It's far enough back that if anybody that shouldn't see me does, they'll forget by the time I'm born, but not so far back that I don't know who anybody is. Maybe, if I can talk to Yondaime-sama, he can help me."

 

* * *

 

 

"Damn it."

Kakashi cocked his head at the sound of soft cursing. It had come from the back yard near the little garden Sakura had insisted on planting. She wasn't yelling, throwing things, or repeating multiple explicatives, so he knew she wasn't doing anything physical such as assembling another shelving unit for the basement, or trying her hand at knitting again. It was safe to satisfy his curiosity with a quick peek, at least. When he saw her standing in the wind, shivering without even a long sleeved shirt on, he flung open the door and dragged her back inside, kicking all the way.

"I don't know what you're trying to do out there, or what is in that damn book you've been studying, but this is ridiculous," he told her, practically throwing her into a kitchen chair before starting a pot of water on the stove and rifling through an assortment of hot tea bags. "Just tell me what it is so I can help you."

He had been pushing her for information for weeks. It was nearly winter now, had even snowed a few days ago, but warmed again unexpectedly, only to freeze again today. She hadn't stopped trying, and she hadn't let him see the diary once.

"It's no use," she sniffled. "He was proficient by the time he was six! I should be able to do what a six-year-old did."

"Sakura, I was a chunin by the time I was six, an ANBU two weeks after you were born, and that was because they held me back," he reminded. "The only other person with advancements like that was one of my ANBU kohai. Did Yamato put you up to this... whatever it is?"

"No," she shook her head. Although he had just handed her a perfect alibi, she didn't want her captain to get into trouble over a lie. "No, this is something for Naruto. It's a favor. I have to do it."

He studied her shaking form with a frown. "Is this about... Never mind."

"If you know something that I should..." she warned.

He sighed, sitting across from her at the table, "Sorry, the council have been doing that to me, too."

"Doing what to you?"

"Starting to ask, then saying forget it."

"Then say what's on your mind already."

He leaned back in the chair, studying her a bit before he spoke. "I've heard a lot of whispers lately, and there are a few familiar names popping up. Yours and mine, your father's, my father's, and my sensei's."

"And?"

"Is that book you have an old telling of the story of your clan?" he asked outright. "Do you know the one?"

She looked down, "I know it. My dad told it to me a few times."

"You're avoiding the question."

"Why do you care?"

"That book looks just like the one my sensei used to carry."

She looked back up again, "It contains a first hand account of the first people to live in this part of the mountains... and when they left."

"Does it say why?"

She stood up and slammed her fist (unaided by chakra) into the table, "Damn it, Kakashi, we are at home, not in an interrogation room!"

"Then stop making me ask you so many questions," he suggested.

"You already know what this book is, who wrote it, and what I'm trying to do, so stop it already!"

"Sakura, if you succeed you will save lives," he informed her. "You will try to change things, and you will. You will ensure things will go as they have already. If you don't go back, things will be a lot worse. I can promise you that."

"How do you know I can succeed?"

"I can't tell you," he said, sounding as frustrated as she was beginning to feel. Her growl of a response did nothing but bring a frown to his face. "Sakura, if I tell you anything about what I know, I can't be sure it will come true. If I warn you, or give you any hints, things could go better in some ways, but fail catastrophically in others. Do you understand?"

"Yes," she bowed her head, then jumped when the tea pot began to whistle, causing a little chuckle from him.

Kakashi turned off the stove and moved the pot off the hot eye, "Peppermint alright?"

"Do we have any pomegranate flavor left?"

"No, but we do have cranberry."

"I want that one mixed in."

Kakashi shifted through their remaining tea selection again to do as she said, and, to Sakura's eyes, he looked like he was practically dancing. "Promise me one thing, Sakura?"

"What?" she asked, taking the offered mug.

"Promise me you won't try to save my father, or Naruto's parents. You can warn sensei about a man named Tobi a few days before October tenth, but not about anything else."

"You already know how far back I plan on going?"

"You will succeed. I told you that."

"Will I make it home?"

"I'll be the first to know if you do... if you speak in linear time, per person."

She tried to smile. "So, you don't know."

"I've met you three times now, Sakura. I hope for a fourth. After all, I can't loose my best medic."

Three times, he had said. Sakura wondered at that. She knew the first and only time she had met him was fresh out of the academy. If that was his third time, the other two must have happened long before then. Since she planned on going back about thirty years, if she could correctly guess the time, she probably met him when he was a toddler, making that his first time. Did something happen on her return and cause her to stall out early? That would account for a second time, but the question was, why did she leave his life again? She hoped it was because she found a way back to save Hinata, and then again to the moment she left to begin with.

Nervous over his words, and lack thereof, she put on a pair of shorts and a tight tank top and went into the basement for a few rounds against their punching bag. It was the first, and only, item they had bought together. Often, after a bad day arguing with the council, Kakashi could be found in the basement, working his frustrations out with some old fashioned kick boxing. Sakura had taken up the habit in the back yard, but, as the weather turned cooler, Kakashi asked if she'd rather join him in the basement. It was then that she suggested the punching bag so that they could critique one another better, and get something physical to hit if the other was not present. A week later, when their pay came in, they went out of town on a small holiday to go buy the large sandbag. Since then the item saw action most nights of the week from one or both of them.

"Care to work on jujutsu tonight?" Kakashi asked, already stripped to the waist and warmed up when she reached the bottom of the stairs. His unprotected knuckles were pink with the abuse of hitting the rough bag. It was then that Sakura realized that, despite being an active shinobi for over thirty years, he usually had some form of protection on his hands in every fight, even training. He only seemed to take off his gloves when he was really worked up about something and needed to feel pain to clear his head of the rest of the shit he dealt with.

"Let me see those first," she offered, reaching for his bruising knuckles.

"I want them to callous," he shook his head.

"Then don't do it anymore for two days," she suggested. "If you go in with hands that look like this, people will wonder how we're treating each other."

"Hn," he walked off, stretching his legs. "Warm up. We'll work on whatever you want tonight."

She rolled her eyes at him and dropped down for fifty push ups, which he joined her in finishing after the first thirty. She rolled over on her back and started leg lifts, fifty per leg, then held them there for a count of thirty seconds before jumping up to do some squats, him following her lead the whole way. He started a set of four-count jumping jacks next, and she kept up with him for the first hundred before dropping off to use a cross beam in the floor joists for a few pull ups while he finished another set of a hundred four-count jumping jacks. While he did his pull ups, she stretched out her arms and legs.

He attacked without warning while she was half way in the splits, shoving her front against the hard concrete floor roughly with his upper body while his legs entwined wither hers and shoved them apart. It was a basic hold, one which she knew the quickest way out of was to roll her opponent onto his back before he could center his balance over hers. The problem was that Kakashi was too quick. Before she could start to rock out of the trap, he had her, palms smacking the ground with each shove of her hips and shoulders, his hands scrambling to take control of hers.

"Come on, Sakura," he encouraged, "you can break this hold."

Sakura squinted her eyes shut and whispered, "forgive me."

Out in the field, she could use a little bit of chakra to enhance her bucking escape, but there was a rule of no chakra in the house for them. She would demolish the place, so he agreed to abide by the rule as well to make things more fair. This left her one option. Sakura had superior flexibility and reach. As Kakashi bunched up to try and spread her legs farther to end her bucking, she slipped an arm around to his ass and dug in her nails, yanking forward and breaking his balance and his hold on her left leg. He was pulled up on her right and she shifted to land on his stomach with hers and landing a punch on his jaw. With her legs planted at his sides, he could buck all he wanted, but not throw her off as long as she kept his arms at bay. If he rolled, she could stay on top of him and pin him like he had her. If he sat up, his nose and throat would be under attack. If he continued to fight from this position, his sides, gut, throat, and face were all striking points for her.

He bucked anyway. Keeping her moving to maintain balance and placement was the perfect way to keep her from harming him. That was, until she chose to spread her weight over his upper body, trying to smother him between her boobs. With a grunt, Kakashi brought his fist down onto her thigh as hard as he could from this position, intent on cramping her muscles and weakening her on one side. She had anticipated his move and straightened her leg just long enough for his fist to hit the floor, then trapped his hand by his side with her knee.

Normally, at a point like this, they'd call a time out and reset, but he was distracted by how quickly she had gotten him here, and distracted by something else. He firmly bit down on one of the things that had him distracted, getting her attention fast. He had warned her in the past, if her breasts ever got in an opponent's face, male or female, she should expect them to be targets. Although he had never attacked her like this before, he decided to drive that lesson home now.

Sakura screamed and pulled back, a look of shock on her face. Kakashi narrowed his eyes at her, un-fisted his hand to grip her ankle and rolled to pin her leg under his side, left hand reaching for her throat. She let him get hold of her, then peeled away his hand by the thumb and threw her face forward to head-butt him, but that motion was a fake, the real attack came to his throat by way of her fist. He saw the attack, and stopped her hand a couple centimeters from her intended target. At this point, they could go for more private parts with their feet, but their legs would just end up kicking one another in blocks and counter attacks.

"You bit me," she accused.

"You grabbed my ass," he countered, smirking.

"I kept it on your hip!"

"Felt like you almost grabbed my balls, actually."

She turned as pink as her hair.

"So, I figured if you wanted to get naughty with it, I'd oblige."

She turned a deeper shade.

"You have an amazing blush," he said, smirk changing to a grin as she let go of his hand, slid her leg free and almost made it to her feet when he grabbed her by the ankle again, tripping her, then puled his body up hers and had her pinned again. "I didn't say the match was over."

"But you gave up!" she ground out.

"Says who? Stalemates can be broken with words. Making your opponent angry is the most common way, but you can use other things against them, too."

 _You want to see your balls grabbed?_ she thought, taking in their location by feel. Her shorts were thin, and so were his pants. She could feel every twitch of his legs against hers as she shifted, could feel the way he used his ass to resettle his weight instead of the rest of his legs. This was a man who had superior control over each fiber of his physical being, except for one area. It seemed pinning her this way was a little bit of a turn on for Kakashi. She knew because, despite all the other times they had fought in these same clothes, she had never felt his groin so warm, his balls so big. Not only that, but his dick was slightly swollen, too. He was using a portion of his concentration to keep it from showing, but she could tell that any time she bucked and caused his balls to shift on her stomach, his jaw went slightly slacker, breath caught just a little bit more.

He watched as her eyes narrowed momentarily, then grew wide. What was she thinking? Did she have something up her sleeve to break his hold? He had her hands pinned above her head now. His centered, heavier mass would keep her in place, especially if he relaxed and became a dead weight over her center where he currently sat. Her legs would be almost useless. Her lack of retort should have been his first clue as to her intentions. The slowly steadying, rhythmic thrusts of her hips should have been a major wake-up call, but she just felt so good beneath him that he couldn't move, couldn't speak. He feared to speak. If he did, she would hear it in his voice. She would know that she had won.

Perhaps she already knew. This could be a dirty, dirty trick.

But then, why was her breathing changing? Why were her eyes searching his? Was she looking for an answer? How was he supposed to respond? He could jump up, tell her she won, and fly to the shower to take care of his steadily growing problem and avoid her for the rest of the night. Or... Or he could test her intentions. There was a simple way to do so.

Sakura knew she shouldn't be doing this. She should have just grabbed him by the balls and pulled like her original thought. Now she was getting more worked up than him! She had let too much of her own wants influence the way she moved against him, and teasing his body was becoming a torture for her own. If they broke this position now, and he shuffled her up the stairs ahead of him as usual at the end of a match, he would see the dampness on her shorts. He would see that she wanted him, and that this was not quite so calculated.

So it came as both a surprise and a relief when he lowered his head and gently kissed the corner of her mouth.

When Sakura didn't bite, didn't even turn her head, Kakashi pressed his lips more firmly onto hers. She didn't hesitate but for a second before opening her mouth to his, kissing him back, tongue caressing his teeth as her back arched, pressing her chest into his, rolling her hips harder this time.

For a first kiss between them, Sakura thought he was damn good at knowing exactly what she wanted. No spit, only light touching of tongues, and a hard lock on her lips. Kakashi shifted when she bit at his bottom lip a little, moving his legs to spread hers, pressing his dick to her wet shorts. They shared a slight moan. He wasn't expecting this much from her yet, and she didn't realize just how hard he had gotten.

"If you want me to stop," Kakashi offered, voice lower than she'd ever heard it before, "you better tell me now."

"Do you want this?" she asked, shaking a little.

He kissed her throat lightly, admitting, "yes."

"I don't," she said, momentarily crushing his hopes. "I don't just want it. I need you inside of me."

"Oh, thank you," he hummed, peppering her throat, collar bone, and upper chest with kisses. He let go of her hands and started pulling her top up, lips and tongue seeking a nipple while his hand massaged her other breast, leaving her to her own devices to finish taking off the sports bra he had bunched up under her arm pits. When she started working at his pants with her toes, however, he pulled back a bit.

"We can drag it out another time," she reminded. "I said I need you. Get inside me already!"

He took momentary stock of his body. Sure she said she was ready, but how long had it been since she had had sex? He wasn't the biggest man out there, but he sure as hell wasn't the smallest. She had to know that. She had no choice but to feel him pressed against her, two pieces of thin fabric be damned.

"I don't want to hurt you."

"I'm a big girl, Kakashi. Go slow the first couple thrusts, and I'll stretch out to fit you."

Oh, that was right, she was keeping warm with that damn toy of hers. Resolved to just do as he was told at this point, Kakashi shifted to pull her shorts down, being sure to finger her clit a couple times in the process, then pulled his own pants off and lined up. He held still there for a moment, savoring the way she was squirming. He held the tip of his dick at her slick entrance, rubbing up and down a bit, teasing himself to full hardness in the process.

"Please, Kakashi," Sakura begged, digging her fingers into his sides.

Her lips needed kissing again, he thought, and bent down to nibble a little at her bottom lip, thrusting his dick inside her body a second later, swallowing both their moans as he kissed her hard. Her legs came up around his middle, and he grabbed them, pulling them to his shoulders and getting her already tight channel even tighter, intent on making her feel every contour of both their organs as he thrust over and over.

Kakashi was already shaking when she came, but he held on, barely. This was just a little cum, and he could feel her starting to shake harder than he was as her real orgasm built up. She was saying his name over and over, eyes unfocused, fingers fisted in his hair. Her insides were quivering, as erratic as her gaze, and he knew. He pushed harder, faster, bringing himself over the edge just before her. His body went still and ridged as hers jerked erratically around his, her orgasm pulling a harder one from him than he had anticipated.

He started to breathe again while she was kissing his cheeks, caressing his back and arms with heavy hands.

"Oh, I've missed this with you," he mumbled in her ear.

Her breath caught. "What did you just say?"


	5. Back at Your Door

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sakura goes streaking?

Kakashi was kicking himself right now. He had pretended not to know the full extent of things, had flat out refused to tell her anything for so long, and then he went and slipped up like that. He had promised himself, years ago, that she would never have to know about that time in his life before she was ready. As far as he was concerned, she would go to the past, find him, have their romance, then come back to him in the present and forgive him.

So much for that fantasy.

Sakura's chakra surged, even turned a light shade of red, and she disappeared from underneath him, leaving him to smack his tender balls and dick on the concrete floor and hope to the gods she didn't leave him forever. Suppressing a groan, Kakashi picked himself up off the floor, redressed, and headed for the shower. If she ever came back, her first stop sure wasn't back to him, it seemed. She could have gotten home by the time his shower was done, though.

Someone was knocking on the door when he did finish washing, and he hoped for a moment. When the door opened, however, he saw a rather unexpected ANBU uniform. The old bird mask looked relatively new, but Kakashi knew why. This was not the person he expected to see, but he certainly was a welcome sight.

"Where is she?" Kakashi asked the moment the door closed. There was no way this man couldn't know who he was talking about. The first time he saw her, he was staying at his sensei's home.

"Is that how you greet your old sensei these days?" Minato asked, pulling off the mask and taking up residence in Sakura's favorite chair.

Kakashi felt a moment of shame, then cleared his head again, "Sorry, sensei, it's just that she should have come back by now."

"Would you be talking about a pink haired girl with green eyes?"

"That's her," Kakashi nodded, sitting down on the sofa.

"She's currently... my currently... in interrogation," the blond smiled. "The police brought her to me. I hoped you would know who she was so I didn't have to ask around."

Kakashi thought for a moment about how to answer this one, but asked a different question first, "How did you know how far to come?"

"She mentioned knowing the son of a Namikaze man," Minato shrugged. "Since I'm the only one in Konoha, and I don't have any children..."

"Ah... so she let that sip," Kakashi frowned.

"I'm just here to figure out who she is, and if she's a threat, Kakashi, not to change anything. Can you help me?"

"She's my wife," he answered honestly.

Minato's face fell, "What happened to Rin-chan? Why would you marry someone so much younger than you?"

"I can't tell you that," Kakashi ground out, not liking where this was going at all. "Haruno Sakura is my wife, that is all I can really say to you about it."

"I understand, now about your wife, again... What did you do to piss her off? I heard she was punching through trees when they found her."

"Said something right at the wrong time," Kakashi answered with a grimace.

"How does that work?" the blond squinted at him.

"Sakura is more important to me than she knows," he answered, leaning back into the cushions. "Certain things happened not long before your death that made the initial agreement for Rin-chan and I to marry fall through. I was freed from the obligation. About six years later, a woman came into my life. I loved her very much. She disappeared the same week I took on a genin team... She was a part of that team."

"That must have been awkward," Minato frowned, crossing his arms.

"It was worse than that," Kakashi continued, relishing the ability to confide in this man again. "She became a medic. She was infatuated with one of the boys on her team, an Uchiha. Your son was always after her. I did my best to guide the Uchiha, his parents were absent. He had a lot of pressure on him to develop his Sharingan anyway. I taught him chidori. Jiraiya-sama taught your kid rasengan. They used it against each other. They almost killed her because of it once. I had to save her many times before she stood on her own two feet."

"Sounds familiar," Minato smirked.

"The Uchiha was an arrogant, elitist ass like I was at his age. There were a lot of times I hoped he would wake up and see her as an asset, a person to lean on. That or she would forget him and go to your son. If either of those scenarios had played out, though, I never would have pissed her off this evening. I never would have fallen in love with her in my past. She would have never been pushed to go there. She could be happy."

"You never did say what you did to her," Minato reminded.

Kakashi blushed and squirmed like a teenaged girl for half a second. "We had sex... and I told her I missed it... for her it was our first time."

Minato burst out laughing. "That explains why she showed up naked in the park right in front of Uchiha Fugaku!"

Kakashi wished he could sink into the couch and disappear forever. Uchiha Fugaku? Sakura had to have become so much more enraged at that point. "Uchiha Fugaku-san is the father of the Uchiha boy I spoke of earlier."

Minato laughed even louder. "You, Kakashi, are such an idiot!"

"She's the one who sent herself to him, not me," Kakashi tried correcting the situation.

"Mikoto-chan slapped him so hard when he tried to give her his shirt just to cover her up! She thought he was trying to impress the girl with his chest or something! Then, Aburame Shibi had to track her down."

"She was engaged to his son a few months ago," Kakashi groaned, more to himself than to admit anything to Minato.

Of course, the blond man caught that, too, making him laugh again.

"So, my wife went streaking before all of her previous romantic option's fathers... Now what?"

Minato sobered up a bit, stood and crossed the room to sit beside Kakashi. "She's really angry with you. She's more angry with herself, though. I am going to bring her back here, and you are going to confess to her everything you told me and more. Then, you give her space and let her come to you when she's ready. That's how it works with temperamental women like ours. Now, I have to get her out of there before Sandaime-sama finds out about her."

 

* * *

 

 

Sakura was not happy about this at all. The least this man could have done was bring her more clothes. Instead, smirk in place, he unlocked the restraints around her wrists and ankles, then lead her almost back to the exact place she appeared at. He wouldn't speak until this very moment.

"You've got two choices," he informed her. "You can forgive Kakashi and listen to what he has to say, or you can continue to be angry with him and possibly end all his reasons to live before you ever meet him the first time."

"The only reason he stuck around was for Naruto," Sakura rolled her eyes.

"Naruto isn't the only light in Kakashi's life after I die," Minato answered, removing his bird mask enough for her to see his face.

Sakura blanched. "Namikaze-sama!"

"Shut it," he commanded. "Don't say another word about how I die or about my son. Don't say anything you may or may not know about Kakashi's former team either. Not to me or anyone else in this time. Kakashi has a lot of explaining to do to you. Please give him another chance. I hear you once pined for a boy that was a lot like he is in this time. If you could love that boy so much, you can forgive Kakashi. At least hear him out."

Sakura stared at the dirt between them, wondering how this happened in the first place. Sure she meant to learn how to travel to the past. Yes, she would be lying if she didn't want to change how her present was going. No, she didn't want to end up here naked, or go home in Uchiha Fugaku's shirt. Then again... Sasuke might appreciate having something like that back. Nearly all of the Uchiha estate was gone now. This one simple piece of home might do him some good. Her mind wandered all around the place, and soon she found it back on their conversation.

"Is there anything I can take with me?" she asked after a moment. "I'll give this shirt to Sasuke-kun, but I want to know if there's anything left of Kakashi's father's that I can bring to him. A peace offering. Something he will appreciate."

Minato thought for a moment, then his figure blurred. Sakura recognized the blur to be his time travel, not the summoning technique he contrived to hide it behind. When he reappeared, he was holding a worn photo album.

"He doesn't want anything to do with his father these days," Minato reminded. "Maybe in your time he will appreciate his family more."

"Maybe," she agreed.

Minato laid a hand on her shoulder, "Ready?"

Sakura nodded. Once again she felt the surge of energy, this time surrounding her from the outside. It sent a shock through her system, being carried along, and she jumped, breaking contact. Minato disappeared. In his place stood a kid, maybe ten or twelve years old. The boy was blushing furiously.

"Uh... uh oh," Sakura crossed her arms over her chest even tighter. "Hey, kid, can you just pretend you didn't see that?"

"My name isn't 'hey kid.' It's Uchiha Itachi."

Sakura blanched. Well fuck a damn duck. She was so SCREWED! Why couldn't Minato be here right now to pull her out of this mess? Why wasn't she here to pull herself out of this mess? Wait... Wasn't she still wearing this boy's father's shirt? While she was having her little mental panic attack, the boy spoke again.

"No, I can't pretend that you didn't just appear in front of me," Itachi sighed, controlling his blush. "I have to take you to the police station now. You're indecently dressed in a public area. That's against the law."

And she'd go right back into Uchiha Fugaku's hands, wouldn't she? Sakura rolled her eyes and cursed her luck. "Any chance we don't have to walk there?"

"There is a teleportation mandala there I can use," he sighed, reaching out to grasp her wrist. Once again, someone else was toting her off somewhere she really didn't want to be at the moment. This time, though, she had no way of fighting it. She didn't fight Minato on purpose. It just happened. This time, though, she knew she could at least get something better to cover up with.

Sakura couldn't believe her luck. The Sandaime had been visiting the police station today. The moment she was brought in, he walked right up and thanked Itachi for finding her, handed her some clothing, allowed her time to change, then whisked her away to the Hokage Tower. She didn't get a second to speak other than to say thanks once or twice. She never got processed for indecent exposure, though Itachi still said he was going to write a report of it anyway.

"Minato-kun warned me about you," the old man mentioned gruffly, pouring a cup of tea for her, then one for himself. "He hoped you'd end up sometime around now."

"How did you know it was me, Hokage-sama?" she asked sheepishly.

"He described you well enough," he smirked. "A pretty young lady with pink hair, green eyes, wearing nothing but an Uchiha shirt. He said you're a Haruno, and that you know Hatake Kakashi."

"I don't..." she stumbled. "I don't know if he knows me yet, sir. How old is he right now?"

"He's twenty-two, I believe."

"No, we haven't met yet," she shook her head. "At least, I first met him when he was twenty-six."

"Hmm..." he thought for a moment. "You are a Haruno. It's highly possible that you will find reasons to visit him in his past before this point. I know a way we can test this theory, if you're willing."

"Sir, I don't see what the point would be," she said, not understanding at all why he would want to find this out. "Yondaime-sama was taking me back to my time. I got a little jumpy and didn't make it. Shouldn't I just go back to my time now?"

He eyed her carefully. "You can do it on your own now? He said you only activated your gift accidentally one time."

She sighed and looked away. He was right.

"Besides," Sandaime went on, "I believe there is a reason he has left you here, and that you have left yourself here. We need to find out what that reason is. Tell me more about your time, girl."

Sakura shook her head, "It's very different from how things are now. I don't think you should know. If I were to tell you, it would change the circumstances of my being here in the first place... I may end up dead before coming here instead."

"Just tell me about the last two or three years of your life. I am an old man. I know I probably won't live more than ten or fifteen years from now anyway. I am also quite aware of your family history. It's part of why I chose Namikaze-san to be the Fourth. One would assume, considering he chose to help you specifically, that it would have something to do with your family... maybe even Hatake-san?"

Sakura nodded. "There was another war. Everyone's getting married and having children. I'm expected to do the same. I don't want to be with the man they forced me to marry. I'm not in-love with him, but I do care for him. I think he loves me, though. I know he at least loves me as a close friend... we've been working together for eight years now. We went through the war together, lost friends together, helped forge allies together, and saved each other's lives countless times, even times when we thought we were ready to die for Konoha. We stopped each other from making many mistakes, and helped each other make a few. It was one of those mistakes that landed me here."

"What do you intend to do?"

"I want to find a way to protect my friends and myself from these forced marriages. I want people to be with who they love, not who they're told will produce a better shinobi genetically."

"So many people died that they had to invoke the old laws?"

"Yes, sir."

"We really should see about getting you and Hatake-san to talk in this time. He may have some of Minato's old things. Something that might help you along your path."

"What do you have in mind?"

 

* * *

 

 

Hatake Kakashi was happy enough doing his grocery shopping alone. Most people who shopped in the morning were women. They often had their young children with them. He liked seeing the kids, even occasionally tripping the misbehaving ones now and then. Every once in a while, he would catch a glimpse of blond hair and blue eyes, and he would know it was Naruto stealing from one of the stalls. The kid was only eight, but he had to fight for his right to live every day.

Though Kakashi was forbidden from taking him in (no ANBU who lived single was allowed to adopt kids), there was no rule against aiding him now and then. He would do little things, like become a distraction while the boy stole food. He would order clothing in the child's approximate size, claiming it was for a friend's kid, then make sure to set it down in the boy's reach while pretending to shop for other items, again allowing the boy to steal what he needed. Kakashi wouldn't pay these people, ever. He would demand refunds of down payments on items that were stolen by the boy. Anyone who chased the blond would get hurt "accidentally" at some point if it looked like they were going to catch him.

If anyone had ever actually given him something out of charity or gratitude, Kakashi would have willingly paid them double the price of the item. Nobody did. He never paid for anything Naruto needed. So what if the kid chose to spend his money on Ramen. At least those people knew his money was as good as the next guy's, however little it may be.

It was on one of the days Naruto was absent from the area when Kakashi saw a woman he thought he recognized. She was smiling, holding a basket of groceries, and walking towards him through the open air market. Sandaime Hokage walked by her side, puffing gently on his pipe. She looked much younger this time, maybe about Kakashi's own age, or a couple years younger. She was wearing brown blended contacts to shade her natural color, and had obviously changed her hair color to be more a dull red than pale pink. It was her, this woman he'd ran into several times in the past, but, for some strange reason, a slightly altered her. Maybe it was just a phase she was going through.

Kakashi walked up to them, casually, book in hand. "Good to see you're feeling better, Sandaime-sama."

"Much better now that the river is no longer running pink with that dye the Uzumaki child contrived last week," the old man smiled.

The woman, Kakashi saw, repressed a giggle.

"And speaking of such colors, have you met miss Namikaze Sakura?" he asked, gesturing to the young woman. "She is a distant relative of our dear Yondaime Hokage, I believe, and has only just come back from a long mission. I trust you have an extra bed she can use for a while."

Kakashi narrowed his eye at her. What kind of game was she playing here, telling Sandaime she was a Namikaze? Did the old man believe her?

"I recalled her from the field not long ago," Sandaime said, answering the unspoken questions. "Her Haruno relatives won't take her in at this time, as they have a child to tend to right now. Seeing as the two of you are already friends, I assume you won't mind?"

"Yes, I'll take her," Kakashi answered, still studying the young woman before him. "Some of our friends dropped off some clothing that should fit her a few days ago, seeing as all of her personal possessions will... take some _time_ to come here."

The faint smile the Hokage held now turned to a smirk and a nod. "It's so good you are an understanding man. Keep it up, and I may decide to appoint you as my successor instead of Jiraiya."

"I doubt I'll ever have to take the job," Kakashi answered. "I don't like the amount of paperwork Iruka sets me up with as it is."

"That's what secretaries are for, Hatake-san," Sandaime laughed, relighting his pipe. "Speaking of which, I'm in need of one. Since I know our client backed out of the deal, Namikaze-san, and did not pay, would you mind filling the role until your next assignment? Nara Yoshino is willing to fill in now and again, but she can't always be around what with her husband and son being so disinclined to help at home."

"I can be at your office first thing in the morning, Sandaime-sama," Sakura chirped.

Kakashi understood. He couldn't be expected to pay all the bills for two people, even if he did make plenty enough money, and she would need something to keep her busy and in sight. This way she could earn the money to buy her own clothes and place to stay. After what happened a few days ago, Kakashi wasn't sure having her stay with him for an extended amount of time was the best idea. She could feed him information that would alter the course of her known history. The only thing he needed to remember was to keep an eye out for unexpected enemies when saving her skin, and that would be decades from now, the way an older Sakura had explained things a few days ago.

"Here," Sandaime pulled out his wallet and counted out a few bills before handing it to Sakura. "Consider this an advance. Being a married man, I know you women need a lot of things men have no use for. Kakashi will not have them at his place. He is so rarely home these days that you won't be able to rely on him even to dust. I need some time to speak with Kakashi privately, if you don't mind."

"But, sir, your shopping?" she asked. "Should I deliver these clothes and fruit to your wife?"

"My dear, the reason I had you help me pick them out is not because you are similar in size and taste to my wife," he pressed the basket back to her. "They were always for you. Consider that as the payment for your last mission."

There were actually tears in her eyes. Kakashi wanted to look away at first, but reminded himself that these were tears of happiness, of thanks, not the heartbreaking ones he had seen days before when she reported to him of his death. This young woman before him had no clue what had happened to the woman of a few days ago. This was a woman in a somewhat foreign environment, unsure of herself, being given trust and encouragement.

"Do you remember where I live?" Kakashi asked, honestly unsure if this Sakura was ever here before. The other times he had seen her, she genuinely looked to be about a decade older than the woman standing before him.

"Are you still on Aspen Branch?" she asked.

Kakashi nodded. "I have leftovers from the Akimichi and need someone to help eat them before they grow things."

"I should be there in about a half hour, sensei," she answered casually. "I have to get some things first."

"Don't call me sensei, Sakura," Kakashi answered. "I'll see you then."

Sakura trotted off, actually humming out loud, a far cry happier than Kakashi had ever witnessed before. All the previous times she had been there to save him from something, and there was the last time... She acted like they were quite close, but she had just now called him sensei. Maybe it was because he was a teacher to some of her classmates. He sincerely hoped that was the case.

"Well, it's good that you know who she is," the Hokage spoke lowly, sure only Kakashi heard. "She said this is her first time back, and I agree that slightly changing her appearance is a good idea. It will keep people who will come to know her from making a solid connection without compromising her natural looks."

"I don't like this, Sandaime-sama," Kakashi voiced honestly. "The last time I saw her... she was older, and she refused to speak with you. I was apparently just killed while saving her. She said Uchiha Sasuke had something to do with it."

"Does knowing this change your willingness to train the boy later on?" he asked.

"No," Kakashi shook his head. "It means I need to be very careful about teaching him. I should try to help him become strong enough to stand for what is right instead of who pays more."

"But, Kakashi, we work for those who pay more."

"I don't."

"True," Sandaime nodded. Kakashi always took the missions that allowed him to make judgment calls to save lives. He only killed those he had to, not those who just had a pretty bounty on their heads over silly things like stealing jewels or food. "My worry, though, Kakashi, is what kind of world we are headed towards when a woman must go to such great lengths to change her future? She admits there are many things she wishes to keep the same, even many heartbreaking events. She will not, however, reveal anything about the war she endured a few years in her past or it's effects on ninja life other than to say that there are a lot of babies being born. I wonder if that is why she is here."

"I don't understand, sir."

"She is Haruno Kizashi's daughter, Kakashi. So was your former team mate, Nohara Rin. Think about that, and babies, and your sensei."

Kakashi was utterly confused. "I'd rather not think about babies right now, thank you... unless... Is she really here just to...?"

"It's a keen possibility, so keep your wits about yourself around her," Sandaime warned. "I want her to get what she came for, but not at the expense of my best ANBU captain. Do I make myself clear? When she gets what she came for, she goes home. You can raise the brat when you're actually available to do so, and not a year before."

"Or," Kakashi offered, "I can just make sure I don't get hurt and she can get what she came for in her own time."

The old man looked back down the way Sakura had gone, "Or, she may be here in hiding. I could be mistaken, and she may be here to avoid babies all together. The question now, is which one she wants and whether or not you'll comply."

"I'm not tempted by a girl fourteen years my junior, sir."

"The woman you'll be living with is twenty years old. You are only two years more than that."

Kakashi rolled his eyes. Why did this man have to make so much sense? It had been weeks since his last girl, and he guessed she wasn't going to see him ever again since he called her the wrong name during sex. Honestly, she was doing a trick only one other girl had done to him before, so he called the wrong name. It seemed he was twenty-two and already managed to burn out any chance of a future sex life in this town.

"I think I can manage," Kakashi answered. "Do I need to tail her for you when she's not supposed to be working?"

The old man thought for a couple moments, "Do it randomly. She is extremely skilled and will catch even you eventually, even if she expects it for a while in the beginning. I want weekly reports, and you are to do this in addition to your normal work load, which I will slow down for you if you wish."

"I'll get back to you on that."

 

* * *

 

 

His bathroom was completely taken over. There was a second tube of tooth paste, a pink toothbrush in his cup, a fluffy plastic thing hanging off the shower faucet, and at least five new bottles in the shower alone, and there was a brush and a pic next to his comb. Her clothing from earlier, underwear and all, sat at the top of his laundry hamper, and there was a new little trash can with a swing hinge lid by the toilet. Even the air was different. It smelled fruity and was damp from the shower she had obviously taken, stealing his last clean towel in the process to use as a floor mat, it seemed.

Why did living with this woman mean he had to commit an act of attrition in his own bathroom on day one? Couldn't she give him some break-in time first? Like say, a month? Was a month even long enough to deal with the sight of a tampon box on the shelf above the toilet? What happened if the guys came over for a drink and saw that? What if they smelled day-old blood coming from the trash can when she got her period? Oh gods, the mood swings women had!

The guest bedroom door opened, and Kakashi jumped. He hadn't felt her presence until the door opened, and he realized she was either very low on chakra, or she felt she had to hide from him for some reason. Turning to look at her, he understood it was the former. With her makeup removed, hair down from it's ponytail, and most of her skin exposed since she'd changed into a tank and shorts, Kakashi saw the dark circles forming under her eyes, the pale pallor of her skin, and the slightly underfed state of her otherwise strong body. What kind of life was she living in her time? What had worked her so hard for so long?

"Looks like you need that food," he commented, gesturing back down the hall.

She nodded, leading the way and not bothering to wait for him to get out plates. She just got straight into the fridge, put the containers on the bar, dug some utensils from a drawer, sat down and started eating.

"You put on a good show with the Hokage earlier," he said, picking up the utensils she had gotten out for him and joined her in eating straight from the containers. "But, he's worked out two possible reasons for you to be here. I expect to know the truth before you take over my kitchen and living room next."

"Please just let me eat and rest first," she asked with a sigh. "It was really, _really_ hard getting here..."

"Not possible," he answered. "If you know Sandaime-sama and me, which it's clear you do, you know our trust only goes so far when first meeting someone."

"I know," she nodded, "I can also guess this isn't the first time you've met me."

"The last time I saw you, you were very sad and angry. You needed comfort. All the times before that, however, included you coming to _my_ aid. You've never stayed longer than a day."

"Did I ever tell you why I'm here? Did I even hint?"

He shook his head. She had been vague each and every time.

"So, you know that the way Sandaime-sama and I spoke about a past mission... it was just cover for anyone who didn't know, right?"

"He was testing me, too," Kakashi admitted. "I never told him about you except once. He needed to be sure you were the woman I spoke of."

She nodded, then hummed in delight when she tasted a bite of cake, "Whoever made this... they must be the one who taught Chouji. Chouji made my wedding cake. This tastes almost _exactly_ the same."

Kakashi tried a piece, he agreed it was good for cake. Though he wasn't one for sweets, he could never say no to whatever the Akimichi handed him. Anything he didn't like, he fed to his pack of ninken, thus endearing them to the Akimichi, too, as they would promptly thank the family for the food.

"Who is your husband?" he asked, wondering if he was her first husband, or if there was another before him. It was possible, after all.

"The Hokage," she grinned. "Well, the Rokudaime Hokage, that is."

"What is our relationship, exactly?" he asked. "I know I'm your sensei for a while, but something tells me we're closer than that."

"We've known one another, and worked together, for almost a decade. You're my boss, technically, and I'm the person you call on the most when you want to avoid the hospital. We've become very good friends."

Frustrating, smart woman. He decided to ask her more directly, "Are you cheating on your husband with me, or am I your husband?"

"Why would you ask that?" she demanded, eyes wide.

"Like I said, this isn't the first time we've met."

She nodded, looked away, and took another bite of cake. "Point."

"I deserve to know what it is you want from me," he reminded.

She looked back at him, tiredness showing in every part of her expression. "I want to change so many things... I just don't think changing any of them will do any good. If I take out even one piece of the puzzle from the opposition, so many good things that came of defeating them will be undone in my time. If I give the council what it wants from me, they'll just use it to do more damage than I could. If I don't give them what they want, my father, myself, and even you will suffer."

That rang true with what he heard days ago from her older self.

"I'm not ready to ask you for help," she admitted. "I'm still pissed about the last time I spoke with you."

"What happened?"

"You said the wrong thing at the wrong time... withheld critical information. It was a very tender moment, and I was so angry I accidentally managed to travel back in time on my own."

"So, I am your lover in your time," he observed out loud, just to see her reaction.

She smacked him. "No, you are not."

Kakashi felt the side of his head where she hit him unexpectedly. She used nothing other than her natural strength, and even that was reigned in, and he was grateful.

"Having sex one single time after being cooped up together for months does not count as being lovers!" Sakura clamped her hands over her mouth after that outburst.

"Why did I marry my student?" he asked anyway, having already guessed.

"You weren't given much of a choice," she responded, giving up on the whole secrecy thing now. "Nobody was. I was actually all set to marry someone else, but the council stopped that wedding until you made your decision. When you chose me over the other option you were given, they forced our wedding the next day. Everyone of high quality, of child bearing age, that did not already have a partner or child, were forced into arranged weddings. A few were lucky enough to get with whom they wanted, but we weren't. My fiancee actually tried killing you, thinking it was all your idea. It almost worked, but he didn't count on me saving you."

"I can honestly say that I must have been faced with a very hard decision. Considering our history, as far as I know it, you must not have known about your sister."

"I know some," she said, "but Nohara Rin and Uchiha Obito are topics I absolutely refuse to talk about. They're both partially responsible for the mess I'm in. Ultimately it is the daimyo and the council that undermine the Hokage of my time, but... There's a lot I can't reveal, no matter what. Some things I'm willing to bend the rules on and tell you, but your old team mates, with the exception of Tenzou and Minato, are not topics I can broach. Neither are Uzumaki Naruto, Uchiha Sasuke, the Sannin, Sandaime-sama, or the fates of a few other people."

"Understood," he nodded. "Sensei explained a bit about his own experiences to me once. He told me how dangerous it could be to reveal key things to key people, and how hard it could be to know what damage good intentions could do. He lost everything once because he tried telling people about Konoha."

"So my father tells me," she agreed, stirring the ice in her tea with a finger.

 

* * *

 

 

She had been here for three months, and Kakashi swore he had never seen less dust in his home. Jiraiya's personal belongings, which had been in the room she had taken over, were now stored in the attic. Kakashi could spot the changes in the kitchen and living room now. He had new cookware, new hand towels, and fully stocked fridge and cupboards. Her books filled the spaces in the shelves that his did not, most of them medical in nature. His paperwork was stacked neatly on the desk in his room instead of strewn across the coffee table, floor, and breakfast bar. Dog fur did not pile up on the furniture or in the carpet from his pack's visits. Instead, three times a week, she made sure to get out the vacuum, every day she went over electronics and wooden furniture with a dry dust, and every meal cooked was a "clean as you go" affair. If he failed to clean the bathroom for over a week, without being away on a mission for good reason, she would lock him in it until she knew it was clean. How Sakura could do that to him, he had no idea, but it worked.

The only room she did not touch, other than to organize his paperwork on the desk, was his bedroom. That was his domain. Yet, with her around, knowing she at least peeked in from time to time, Kakashi started making his bed, changing the sheets once a month, and putting his clean laundry where it belonged. Somehow, this little woman had domesticated him through example, and only a couple shows of force.

He could back her off if he wanted, but that would mean pulling out the sharingan. He had agreed to spar with her a few times and quickly learned of its necessity. This woman was _fast_. She was nearly as fast as she was strong. Any genjutsu used against her had to be just as strong. Her only failing was in ninjutsu, but with her strengths elsewhere, she really didn't need it.

Today had been one of the days she had actually beaten him. His consolation prize was getting the shower first. She would put together lunch while he showered, they would eat together while the water heated back up again, and then she would have her turn to clean up. This was the first day of her two week vacation, and she had chosen to spend it with a morning spar followed by an afternoon swim in the river, with a shower, lunch, and a nap in-between.

"Maa, Kakashi, your room mate can kick your ass," Gai wondered out loud as he followed them into the small house. "I thought I was the only one who could do that."

"You wish you could beat me," Kakashi threw back. "I'm currently the winner of the most challenges."

"Not once you fail the next one," Gai smiled.

"Whatever," Kakashi waved him off, closing the bathroom door behind him.

He could hear the light conversation Gai made with Sakura as the two of them raided the fridge for lunch meat, bread, and condiments. There was a small argument over which kind of chips, rice or corn, they should have. As the corn chips were already open, corn it was. The rest of their conversation was drowned out when he turned on the shower and stepped in, taking stock of the bruises she had left. She had healed the worst of his injuries, but left the light stuff as a reminder. Nearly all his ribs had been broken when she threw him against a boulder. That was the end of the fight. He would have kept going, but she called a halt to it all. One more hit from her, and he would have internal bleeding, no doubt about it. She didn't want to have to deal with healing that.

Kakashi smiled at the bruises still on his upper arms and thighs, and he felt one on his jaw when he went to shave. All of these were glancing blows, and, for a moment, he liked having them. It had been a long time since anyone had been able to do even this much. She certainly had never asked him to spar before, and he wondered why when she did.

He didn't wonder anymore. He could smell it on her when they fought. He could see it in her eyes when she healed his ribs, could feel it in her hands when she searched him for more potentially mortal wounds. She was lonely, and for a long time now. He bet she hadn't brought anyone home during his absences, and he certainly hadn't touched her.

But he remembered what she said when she first showed up. To her, before she came here, it wasn't even a day after they had had sex their first time. Whatever he said to her then had been a partial trigger for her coming here now, and she had not forgotten his touch in these past three months. When he had her in the future, it had to be consensual. She had to have wanted him.

He definitely could want her. She wasn't a classic beauty, not all soft bodied with aristocratic features. She was hard bodied, smooth, but with hard lines of muscles. She had a high forehead, but her doe eyes made up for it by a mile. Her lips were small, but her voice was strong. She was pale and small, compassionate and a healer. She was stronger than musclebound men, far more agile, and packed one mean punch. She was something of a contradiction in every way, and Kakashi found that balance rather comfortable. She was the perfect example of what a kunoichi should be, and only that kind of woman was ever any danger to him.

Only that kind of woman could produce the problem he now had.

He had a few one night stands in the past, when it had simply been far too long since his needs had been met and his temper pushed him to seek out the first willing warm body possible. He always picked civilian girls, though, because he knew he was incapable of making a relationship work with them. He'd never have to worry about them slitting his throat over what they thought was love. He even fantasized about a couple of them now and then.

This was different.

He'd never before found himself incapable of coming home with a woman's smell on his body. He'd done it once, and Sakura promptly locked herself away in her room, not talking to him again until after he had showered. Since then, he felt guilty even thinking about finding a woman, and made better friends with his hand.

A week later, he realized that when he used his hand, it was her hand he thought of.

Today, he was thankful Gai had tagged along to distract her. He knew what was on her mind, and it had been on his mind since the night before. He didn't want it, though. He had promised the Sandaime not to touch her so soon. Right now he just had to touch himself.

Kakashi kept it quiet, gently tugging on his own dick, caressing his own balls to the thought of her. He let the thought of her eyes, the sounds her voice would make if he were licking her pussy right now, fill his mind, strengthen his erection, fill his gut with that warm sensation, warmer than the hot water, far smoother than silk. Yes, that is what she would feel like. Somewhere in the background, he could hear her laugh. Kakashi gently bit on his lower lip, imagining it was her teeth sucking his lip into her mouth, his stroking frantic now, pre-cum dripping against his fingers and sliding it against the underside of his dick. He wanted to fill her with his cum, feel her juices and his slide together as their sexes caressed one another... as she milked him dry. It would only be the beginning, the first round. He would rise again soon, and make her suck on his dick while he licked her thighs clean.

That was the thought that finished him off. His balls tightened, pulsing in time with his dick and his spray of cum on the wall. He let out a muffled moan, trying not to let _her_ hear him. She should not hear him until he actually had her. She should hear him only once they were alone, once he had permission.

Out in the hall Sakura heard a low, muffled moan come from the bathroom as she passed by, intent on gathering some lightweight clothes to wear after her own shower.

Her plan was to eat, shower, nap, and then join a few people for an afternoon at the park. That plan was somewhat ruined by Gai following her and Kakashi home, but she made due with having lunch with him and allowing him to stay on the condition that if they wanted to get loud, the guys would have to take their play outside. It also provided her with a distraction for Kakashi while she took care of another need she'd been neglecting since arriving here.

She planned on stealing one of Kakashi's shirts from the bathroom hamper, and she was going to imagine his hands while playing with her breasts and see how far she got before one of them knocked on the door and forced her outside again. If she was lucky, she'd get off at least once.

This sound, though, made her blush harder than expected. She knew this sound well. It was the sound he made when he finished and didn't want her to hear. It was the sound he had made when kissing her, while he was inside her. Kakashi was pleasuring himself on the other side of that door, doing exactly what she wanted to be doing.

Bastard.

Who was he imagining right now? Was it someone she had met? Was it her?

"Sakura-chan," Gai's voice in the kitchen brought her back to the world, "do you have any worcestershire sauce?"

"Unopened bottle in the cupboard over the fridge," she called after a second, letting Kakashi know she was right there. She heard a grunt and a thunk, pretty sure that was the sound of his head smacking the shower wall after she startled him. Served him right for jacking off while they had a guest.


	6. My December

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the short chapter. I'm typing this on the fly and it's either really late or really early depending on your perspective on things. I don't have the time to do everything I want for this chapter, but this is my only chance. It's a complete re-write from the original chapter on FFN.

It was pretty late in the evening when two birds came to Kakashi's house, summoning each of them separately.  Sakura hurried to get her medical apron as per the Hokage's request, but was startled to see Kakashi had gone for his ANBU uniform.  Just to be sure, she grabbed a few weapons of her own.

Neither of them needed it, as it turned out, not any of it.

They were told to meet at the entrance to the Uchiha district.  Kakashi arrived a moment later than Sakura, having to go meet up with Tenzou and Yuugao first.  Three other ANBU teams were present, and no other medic-nin.  Sandaime was already walking out of the gates, conversing with Danzou, and holding a limp child.  Said child had blood on his feet, bruises, and did nothing but cry.

"ANBU, seal off this district and follow Danzou's orders for the investigation and clean-up," Sarutobi ordered.  "Sakura, come check this boy over.  I want to be sure he will make it to the hospital."

It was then that it hit her.  She knew what had happened.  Part of her wanted to refuse to aid little Sasuke.  The rest of her knew the child couldn't harm her, wouldn't even attempt to.  How could he?  His world was just torn to shreds.  Besides, he was just a boy.  He was not the dangerous murderer he might one day become... had become... would become.  Damn it, it was hard to separate the two right now.

"You know something," Sarutobi accused.  "Now is not the time.  Put aside whatever you're thinking.  Help this child and get him to the hospital, then meet me at the Hokage Tower.  I have somewhere to be."

Sasuke was handed over to her.  The kid didn't even bother to acknowledge the transfer.  Sakura gripped him tightly anyway.  Before the Sandaime could get past her, however, she had one thing to say.  "Hokage-sama, he _will_ continue to serve Konoha.  Count on it."

To anyone listening, she could have been talking about the boy in her arms.  Sarutobi knew whom she really meant.  He nodded, "He's definitely proven his will to do so."

Without anything further, the Hokage took off at a brisk pace.

Sakura didn't really know what to do with Sasuke.  She already knew he was unharmed physically except for a couple bruises and a twisted ankle.  The child must have ran and tripped.  She walked and walked, slowly working healing chakra into his minor injuries, only to find herself back home.

"Well, I guess we should get you cleaned up, huh?" she suggested, shifting the child's weight in her arms.  "I'd put you down, but I don't want to clean blood off the floor."

That, it seemed, was the wrong thing to say.  She realized the error right before the small fist collided with her shoulder.  Now he was moving, and cursing, and even biting in his attempts to flee her grasp.  Thankfully, she got a lucky hand at the base of his skull and sent a pulse of chakra meant to put him to sleep.  The kid was so weak at this stage that it worked perfectly, almost too perfectly.  His heart-rate and breathing had dropped to almost non-existent.  Worried, she remedied that with a second pulse of chakra meant to counter-act only a tiny portion of her previous one.

"Damn it," she cursed herself, picking him back up and taking his limp form into the bathroom.  She sat him down on the tiled floor long enough to clean the blood off his feet, wipe the sweat off his face and arms, then pick him back up and get him to the hospital to be monitored over night.

By the time she met up with the Hokage, the person he was meeting was already gone.

"Ah, good.  We have a long night ahead of us," he sighed, rubbing at his temples.  "There were several missions I had assigned to members of the Uchiha clan starting next week.  They will have to be re-assigned to others.  Some specifically needed better than average genjutsu users."

"What about Yuuhi Kurenai, Kakashi, and myself for those?  Do we need more?"

"You're good with genjutsu?"

"Better than most at dispelling it, and not bad at casting."  She appreciated his lack of mentioning anything else to do with what just happened in the Uchiha district or ask about Sasuke's well being, either.

"Good.  I have a mission that will require dispelling abilities.  I'll need Yuuhi and Hatake to handle the more sensitive ones.  Perhaps a couple Yamanaka for the rest.  I can't spare you for long, Sakura-san.  You understand why?"

"Your paper-work load just got a lot bigger?" she suggested.

"You could have warned me this would happen," he admonished slightly.

"What would you have done if I had?"

He looked thoughtful.  "Negotiated.  Took in the clan leader, Uchiha Fugaku, for treason.  Maybe found some other solution."

"You know, Hokage-sama, I've had the chance to speak with Itachi.  I knew Sasuke a long time.  Kakashi even told me some of what he knew.  Negotiations would have been refused.  Uchiha Fugaku's arrest for treason would have sparked them to try a different rout to pull a cou.  This really was the only solution."

"Did all the children have to die?  I think not.  Danzou barely agreed to let Sasuke-chan live."

"Believe me," she smirked a little, "he will come to regret that in the future."

"Will I?"

"No, sir."  She just didn't bother to tell him that he wouldn't live long enough to regret it.

"Well, let us get to the missions office and sort this out as best we can before everyone else shows up."

 

* * *

 

 

Two hours after dawn's first light, Sakura stumbled home, barely keeping her eyes open.  She didn't notice the three figures walking slowly ahead of her up the stairs until one of them held the door open for her.  Curious, she saw a young man with long chocolate hair and dark, almond eyes peering down at her.  It was the specialized forehead protector that gave him away.

She almost called him by name, but then remembered at the last second that she wasn't supposed to know him.  He certainly wouldn't know her yet.

"You're Kakashi-senpai's room mate?" he asked carefully.  "Namikaze Sakura, isn't it?"

"Yes," she nodded through a yawn.  "That's me."

"Was that you who the Hokage was speaking with about the survivor last night?"

"Uh huh."

"How is he?"

"Sleeping in the hospital as far as I know...  I wish I was doing the same."

"Tenzou, let the poor thing inside already," the purple haired woman demanded.

"Why is there blood in the bathroom floor?" Kakashi's voice practically whined from down the hall.

Ah.  Yeah.  She'd cleaned Sasuke, but left a mess in the bathroom.  Well, he could just wonder about it for a while.  The mess could wait.  She needed sleep.  If he was so worried about it, he could clean it himself.

Try as she could, Sakura could only sleep for three hours before her mind simply refused to be still.  It was either that, or the fact that she heard a lot of sniffling.  Confused, she got up and investigated.  It seemed alcohol was flowing early today.  Barely ten in the morning and the three ANBU had a bottle of sake a piece and were going through what looked like five photo albums.

"Have any of you even had breakfast yet?" she demanded.

"Oh, hey...." Kakashi had the nerve to smile at her.  "Uh... when did you get here?  Er... when did you come from?"

The other two gave him a curious look.

"You are sooo drunk, Hatake," Yuugao snickered.

"Your fault," Tenzou had to add.  "You're the one who told him we had to drink for every Uchiha..."

Sakura's eyes widened.  "Just... how much have you all had?"

"Not enough," Yuugao sniffled.  "I'm going to miss him, that bastard.  We all thought he was a softie, didn't we?"

"Who?" Sakura asked for clarification.  No way were they talking about who she thought.

"Itachi," the other woman replied.  "He loved Sasuke-chan so much!  He's all he would talk about.  Seems he only loved his little brother.  That or Sasuke was just out so late he lucked out..."

"We may never know," Sakura lied through her teeth.  Of course she knew, but that didn't mean they should.  "All of you get some water and get some sleep.  Yuugao, you can have my bed.  Tenzou, you get the couch.  Kakashi, go to your room.  I'll have a late lunch ready for everybody later."

"You don't get to order us around!"

"I am a medic first and foremost.  Since I happen to be the Hokage's personal medic and secretary, I do get to tell you what to do.  Either you do as I say for your own benefit, or I take you off of missions for two weeks.  See how your bank accounts and your sanity take that.  I'll make sure you're all bored and broke by the end of the month if you don't get some damn water and sleep right now!"

In the end, she tucked Yuugao in, shoved a pillow and blanket at Tenzou who was trying to sneak more alcohol, and shoved Kakashi through his own bedroom door.  She wasn't quick enough to avoid the hand that shot out and jerked her into the bed with him.

He half-lay on top of her, breathing slowly evening out, as he pulled her close.  He was crying again a moment later.

"Hey, talk to me," she suggested, wondering if he'd wake up enough to let her go.

"I miss them," he sighed, forcefully smoothing out his own breathing.  "I'm happy Obito wasn't with them for this.  Still.  Itachi didn't seem like the kind of person to do something like that.  It hurts.  How could he betray his own family like that?"

"He did it to protect Konoha," she answered.  "Come on.  Don't tell me you didn't know they were planning on attacking the rest of the village?  If he hadn't done it, many more would have died."

"But the kids?  Really?"

"Sandaime-sama asked the same questions.  I can't tell you what I don't know.  I just know that this was the way that saved more lives than it took.  Now.  I'm going to go to the grocery store and get some things."

"Please stay with me," he begged.  "I feel so alone right now.  I need someone to be here."

"Can you actually get some sleep if I stay?"  She didn't believe it would be possible.  He lived alone until a few months ago.  Single shinobi rarely slept well with another person in the room, let alone the house.

"You feel so warm and soft," he spoke through a yawn.  "I'd summon Bull instead so you can do your shopping, but I don't think I can spare the energy right now."

"Fair enough," she patted his hand on her shoulder.  Yes, that made sense.  He did often invite some or all of his ninken to spend the night.  She could be their substitute _this time_.


	7. Sinking

This.

This was exactly why he didn't drink.

He got too emotional, too open.  He let shit slip and actually thought it was a good idea to let someone lay next to him when he slept.  He craved the contact.  The contact let him slip into more peaceful dreams.  The dreams would still sour, and he'd wake up more violently than if he had just had nightmares the whole time.  The false sense of security the preceding lightness would lull him into made his nightmare that much harder to bear.

This time she was standing among the dead of the Uchiha children.  Obito was by her side.  Both of them were blaming him.  They blamed _him_ for the deaths of an entire clan.  Rin actually attacked him this time.  Obito killed her, and Kakashi leapt up to kill Obito-

A hand on his wrist, the chirping of a thousand birds.  A voice cut through, soft, even, yet commanding.

"You stink of sweat and alcohol.  Take a shower, then join us for lunch, Kakashi."

For a moment, he still saw Rin.  He blinked a few times and the auburn turned to red, the brown turned to green.

"Aah, right."

The word lunch was a bit of a stretch.  The kitchen clock read nearly four in the afternoon.

Then he saw a rather unexpected guest at the table.  Itachi's little brother was practically being force fed a bland, hot cereal by Sakura.  Tenzo and Yuugao were already gone.

"You need to eat something, Sasuke!" Sakura admonished the boy.

"Sakura," Kakashi called from the hall, not sure what was going on here.

She huffed at the boy again, then came to join Kakashi in the hall.  He didn't have to ask, she just started talking.

"I offered to watch him for a couple of days while his living situation is figured out."

"You didn't ask me."

"He'll be staying in my room.  I grabbed a cot for him.  His food and clothes will come out of my money if it has to."

"Who will watch him while you're at work?"

"The Hokage's wife has offered to take him off my hands if I need her to."

Kakashi eyed the unmoving child warily.  "There's something I need to tell you.  Away from him."

"It will have to wait," she sighed.  "Come on.  Eat.  I'm going to force him to take a sedative soon.  He hasn't slept at all.  We can talk once he's out of it."

 

* * *

 

 

"Just a few months ago, before the you that you are now showed up, an older you came here. You were scared, beat up. Apparently, someone used Sasuke to attack you, and I died protecting you. Why do you think I had those clothes for you? The ones Sandaime-sama didn't buy? You had been here days before and my friends hadn't come back to get their things back. Sasuke is supposed to kill me in the future, and I'm expected by you, my future unwilling bride, to protect him now. Why?"

"You know I can't talk about that, especially because I haven't experienced it yet. It's on my list of things to figure out and prevent, trust me," she cautiously reached out to touch his arm. "You also need to believe that the kindness we can show him now will help him make better decisions in the future. It will save lives. He told me once, when we were coming home from the Fourth War, that he didn't know how to become a heartless killer for the longest time, because you were kind to him here and now. It's also part of why he chose to fight with us instead of against us when Mada..." she shut herself off. "Sorry. I'm telling you too much."

"Maybe you should just tell me everything you know," Kakashi backed away, taking his eyes off her to look at the floor.  "I know it's against the rules, but if it stops something else like this from happening-"

"There's so much I want to tell you, so much I want to help you through... but, if you don't experience it for yourself, you won't become the man I know. You won't grow strong enough to become my Hokage."

"I'm already one of the strongest shinobi in the world. Top class S-rank ninja in all the Bingo books outside Fire Country."

"You'll have to get stronger, still," she warned. "There's much bigger things on the way. Thankfully, you'll have the time you need to face them."

The sincerity in her eyes told him he really should be afraid of what she had seen. This woman probably saw him get his ass kicked once or twice. He would have to remember that, and to do everything possible not to let that happen. "I guess I should try to eat something."

"Please," she encouraged.  "I'm going to check on Sasuke."

Sakura didn't wait for him to respond, instead going straight to her room and quietly letting herself inside.  The child was covered in sweat, groaning, mouthing words that went along with his dreams.  The sedative she had given him earlier shouldn't have worn off this much as of yet.  It seemed his nightmares would be very strong for quite a while.

Moments later, she found herself still watching the boy when she felt Kakashi's presence behind her.  He gestured with hand signs for her to stay, let Sasuke sleep, but that he had to go.  They still had more to discuss, but not until the Hokage was done with him.

 

* * *

 

 

Kakashi wasted no time in changing into his ANBU uniform, picking different under garments to be sure he didn't stink of spilled alcohol in front of his boss.  Yeah, that might leave a majorly bad impression.  He should have stayed on his guard all night, not gotten drunk and passed out.

"You wanted to see me?" Kakashi asked from a knelling position atop the Hokage Tower.

"Tell me, Kakashi. How many years have you been in the ANBU?" Sarutobi asked, back still turned.

"About ten years. I joined under the Yondaime.

"Minato's original purpose for having you join ANBU was to help you deal with the sadness in your heart," the elder stated, frowning. "He wanted to keep you close."

"I figured that," Kakashi bowed his head, remembering his former sensei with warmth. That man knew how to read him, and how to encourage him without doing so directly. Sure, Kakashi had the ability for ANBU long before he joined, but he did not have the heart for it. Minato knew, and he found a way around that, using the dark seeds of anger and sadness born of the losses of Rin, Obito, and Kakashi's father.

"When Minato died and I regained my post as Hokage, I took his ANBU under my command. However, keeping you by my side isn't going to help you. The work I have for ANBU will only serve to darken your heart..." Sarutobi turned to face him. "Take off that mask."

Kakashi hesitated for only a moment. For nearly half his life, he had been in ANBU. Taking off the mask here, now, would mean loosing his position. But, it was a command from his Hokage. He would obey.

"Ten years, huh?" the elder thought aloud. "Maybe I've asked too much of you."

Instead of accepting the mask as Kakashi had expected, the Hokage threw it high into the wind. Anybody could get hold of it now, anybody but Kakashi.

"I hearby relieve you of your duties as and ANBU," the dreaded words were spoken. "You will assume a new position."

"Yes, sir," Kakashi nodded, accepting this fate just about as easily has he had accepted ANBU to begin with.

The smile on the elder's face wasn't as reassuring as he meant it to be, "You will be a jonin leader!"

Kakashi's eye widened. "Huh?"

"That's right, you, Hatake Kakashi, need a brighter change of pace," the Hokage continued. "Obviously the young woman living with you isn't doing enough. So, I must insist that you embrace this change of pace. We need more highly skilled teachers out there.  You say you want to train Uzumaki Naruto, but you need more practice with children first.  That's partly why I agreed to let Sakura take Sasuke to your home."

"Sir...  I wanted to train him as well, but..."

"If you can impress me with your assigned students before the boys you wish to train graduate, you will receive them. If not, I will have to find someone else."

"But, sir, how am I supposed to teach these kids? At least with Naruto and Sasuke, I have some connection to them, even if they don't know it! You can't just stick me with some brats I know nothing about!"

The frown was back on the Hokage's face. "I stuck you with Sakura-chan. You seem to co-habitate well enough with her."

"We are functioning as room-mates, as I reported the last time you asked me about her."

"And that's the same story she gave me. But I see more in your eyes when you talk about one another. You're both holding something back from the other."

"Of course she is," Kakashi fought the urge to roll his eyes. "A couple days before the massacer, she started getting moody for no apparent reason. Then, when she saw Sasuke... you saw how she was in your office. At home she was mothering him."

"It will be a slow process, but I believe he is more than capable of growing up early. You were."

"Sasuke-kun is not like myself or his brother," Kakashi corrected. "At least, I hope not."

"As do I," Sarutobi hummed, running a fingerr through his beard. "I wonder, had your positions been reversed, if you would have done the same as Itachi. I like to think not, but much more of the missions I give to the ANBU and you would. It's time to break that cycle around you."

"Yes, sir," Kakashi bowed his head again. "And, Hokage-sama, when can I get rid of Sakura?"

The elder looked confused. "Why? Is she proving to be a distraction?"

"She has made no further efforts to return to her time as of yet. She insists on perfumed laundry detergent. She has taken to wearing clothing that shows off her legs in common areas of the house, and has even managed to make it a rule that I do not wear my mask at home. Yes, sir, she is a distraction. She is a potentially deadly distraction for me."

"You're keeping her," he smiled at the younger man. "I spoke with someone recently about her. Someone from as far back as your old sensei. Your young, future wife is here with you for a few more years. Please make time to be with her. If you don't, I will make it a point to send you on escort missions together when you are not testing new genin teams. They will all be to resort towns and such. Do I make myself clear?"

"Why would you do that to me?"

"Sex, drugs, and money may be the three evils for a shinobi, Kakashi, but money buys food and clothing. Drugs are but another name for the very medicines that save our lives or even relieve a headache. Sex, of course, is needed to produce more capable generations of shinobi. Everything has its place and time. You have plenty of money, and there will only be a slight decrese in pay with your leaving ANBU since you will still be going on missions. Also, I pay your housemate well for her clerical services and as my personal medic. Which leads us to drugs. Scent can be used as a drug. I suggested the scents she is using on your clothing and to clean the house, and the inscence for added relaxation. She, also, has been cooking for you using methods one of her sensei taught her. Which leads us to what you need and she wants. It's what you're hiding from one another. She has remained loyal to you despite what she is going through, and you seem to have had a much harder time getting girls for the occasional one night stand with her in your house. You both need a healthy release of your tensions. Just do it already. Kami knows when you start dealing with the fresh genin, you will work up quite a bit of a headache. Sex can relieve that."

Kakashi was doing his best not to blush. This old man who was probably so old he couldn't get it up anymore was telling him to go fuck his houseguest, just with nicer words. "I uh... don't know what to say about that."

"Say you'll skip the condoms. She is your wife, after all, and it's been a long time since there have been any silver-haired babies around this town. If she doesn't want your kid, she will use prevention."

He couldn't hide his blush anymore, but, this time, it was tinged with a bit of anger. "She may be married to me, sir, but I am not married to her. Not yet. I am not sure how handling the genin will go. I can't even think of becoming a father yet."

"You don't have to," the elder winked at him. "Remember what I said last year? You can father the child now if that's what she's here for. Just don't raise it when I need you to work for me now. You will have time later, when she returns to you."

The old man's words were still ringing in his ears, keeping a blush firmly in place on his cheeks when he got back home.  No way.  No way was he going to touch her.  It didn't matter that she was attractive.  He didn't trust her.  She wouldn't tell him anything to his benefit.

Besides, unless he was piss drunk, he didn't want her to touch him.  Well, piss drunk or dying.  She was a medic, after all.

 

* * *

 

 

Whoever gave the academy teachers the idea that these three were ready to graduate needed their head checked. Kakashi had given them a goal and a common enemy, yet, they turned on one another.

"You three fail. You are going back to the academy," Kakashi glared at them, feeling hatred swell inside his chest. They were all too much a combination of himself and Obito at that age. They had the competative streak of Obito, the manipulation of Kakashi, and the eletist attitude of them both. They would be a waste. They weren't worthy of the Yondaime's fundamental value of teamwork.

Going home, he made sure to stop by the dango shop Gai, Asuma, and Kurenai liked to hang out at. He intended to just walk by, at first, as always. Yet, remembering that Sakura would probably be all cheery and eager to hear how things went the moment they were both home, he stopped, turned around, and sat, uncalled, by Gai's side at the table. Considering they had given up offering for him to join them a year before, this brought dropped jaws all around the table.

"What?" he asked them, a bit snappish. "You said this place had the best dango. Let me try some."

"Did I just hear that correctly, Asuma? Gai?" Kurenai asked them both. "Is he really sitting here, asking for dango?"

"I think he is," Asuma ventured.

"Waiter!" Gai yelled out, slapping Kakashi on the back with one arm and waiving the other in the air, "Four of every kind of dango you have ready please!"

Kakashi barely remembered to brace himself before his chest smacked into the table. He fought the urge to backfist Gai right in the nose. These people were his friends. It was time he started remembering that. Friends didn't attack one another with the intent to kill... outside of training, that was. This was not training. These were his friends. He needed to indulge them just a little every so often to keep it that way.

The others talked around him, asked random questions, and eventually started talking about paying the bill after about an hour. Gai paid for most of it; he was very happy that Kakashi had finally joined them for once. Kakashi slipped out while Gai was placing his money and the other two looked through their wallets to cover the rest. Now, maybe, he could handle Sakura.

Kakashi was glad she had given up on her subtle attempts at getting a piece of ass out of him. She went back to the odorless washing powder he used. She quit burning the inscence anywhere in the place except for her own room, and, occasionally, the bathroom. Her short shorts were replaced with thin pants. She always at least had a sports bra under her shirt when around him. He could be comfortable in his own skin around her again.

At least, he could hide the physical attraction better. With less to look at, he had a slightly stronger will to keep quiet when jacking off in the shower, especially when his fantasy revolved around another woman. He knew for certain Sakura would harm him if she knew he ever thought of another woman. But, it was as he had told the Hokage. Sakura was married to Hatake Kakashi, Sixth Hokage, fourty-years-old. He, himself, was twenty-three, nearly twenty-four now, and a Jonin of Konoha serving under the Third Hokage. He was not married to Haruno Sakura, guised as Namikaze Sakura, ex-student of Hatake Kakashi, Umino Iruka before that, and, later, an unknown medic-nin of high skill. He wasn't married to anyone, and he didn't even know how to comport himself in a relationship of that kind. He had friends. He had co-workers, and he had fuck-buddies. She didn't really fit into any of those catagories. She was supposed to have been gone by now.

He was supposed to be working his way to the top of ANBU. But, despite his promotions to captain and occasional solo opperative, the Sandaime had put a stop to that part of his carreer. Now, he was working blind. He had an idea of what to do. After all, he had had an exemplary teacher, if, maybe, a bit blind to Kakashi's main pitfall of selfishness and manipulation. Kakashi could only hope to be as good as Minato, he thought.

There was a blood trail leading to the housing complex. Kakashi's mind jumped from his predicament to the new problem like the flip of a switch. The blood was coming from a different direction than the one he had traveled. He knew the person had gone into the complex bleeding by the placement of the bloody handprint on the fence post on the outside of the gate rather than the inside.

Carefully, ready to summon Pakkun and the others if need be, Kakashi followed the rather steady drops of blood all the way to his own doorstep. The blood was not on the handle, but there was a mark on the door itself, as if the wounded person was knocking. A small pool of blood had formed while the person waited for an answer.

Slowly, lightly, he reached out and tested the doorknob. The door was closed firmly, but not locked. Since the blood trail did not lead elsewhere from here, Kakashi knew Sakura must have let the person inside, and so Kakashi let himself inside, too, making sure to close the door loudly as a way to announce his homecomming.

"Not so loud, idiot!" Sakura's voice hissed from the hall.

"That's not your blood," he stated. "The hand was too big. What happened?"

"I... I don't want to say," Sakura hesitated, showing herself, slightly bloodstained, at the edge of the kitchen.

"Who then?" Kakashi demanded.

"Jiraiya-sama," she answered with a bit of a huff.

"Will he live?" he asked, a tinge of worry in his voice.

"Yes," she smiled slightly. "If I hadn't kept a scroll containing sealed bloodbags in my room, however, he wouldn't be breathing right now."

Oh was he glad to have a medic for a housemate! Jiraiya usually came home in some wounded form or another, but never so bad before now that Kakashi knew. "Can I speak with him?"

"He's passed out on pain meds," she shrugged. "You can see him, but he can't see you. Try in the morning. Right now, I need your help getting all this cleaned up. I'm exhausted after that."

"Exhausted?" he asked, looking her over. Indeed even the slight genjutsu she used to conceal the seal on her forehead had worn off. The seal itself was faded. "What happened again? I thought, by the amount of blood outside, that he was weak and dying when he showed up here?"

"Dying, maybe... weak, not so much," Sakura fumbled a bit, leaning against the wall now. "He was dazed, too. Attacked me two steps in the door. I swear if it wasn't for Tsunade-sama's teaching I wouldn't have survived the first blow. He was fast. I never saw him fight before, and if he was that fast with that bad of an injury, it's no wonder he survived being on a team with my shisho."

"Tsunade-sama, eh?" Kakashi caught her slip up. "No wonder. Here I thought maybe you learned from her neice."

Sakura's eyes widened a bit. "Look, he doesn't know me, alright? Jiraiya-sama and I only ever saw one another in brief passing... usually when I was going to kick Naruto's ass for doing something perverted. He never bothered to try to save Naruto, either, by the way. He never once trained me."

"But, he did, in a way," Kakashi revealed, walking over to take her by the arm and lead her to the sofa in the living room. He could do the cleaning up. She needed to rest. "Sandaime-sama taught him. He taught Minato-sama, who taught me. You say I will be your sensei at some point in the next few years. Therefore, many of the lessons and values Jiraiya-sama holds will be passed on to you."

"Naruto gets all the perverseness. I'm warning you now," she waggled a finger at him. "Besides. How did it go with the new kids today?"

"That's my cue to get up and make you some dinner," Kakashi stood quickly. "You'll need something starchy, right? Maybe rice with egg and some bar-be-que pork? Yes? Good. I'll make that for you and then get to cleaning this mess Jiraiya-sama brought home."

Sakura let the evasion go for now. She remembered, vaguely, his initial distain and disappointment in their team. This team must have been the same or worse. "Does he have his own home he can go to tomorrow? I kinda put him in your bed."

Kakashi froze. Damn. "Uh, this is his home. You've been sleeping in his room this whole time."

"Oh, that might be why he was pulling out a key when I opened the door," she muttered to herself. "I heard someone yelling for you, so I came to the door to find him."

"I see," Kakashi glared at her. "Why did you put him in my bed? Where am I supposed to sleep? I'm not sleeping in the sofa. Not with this headache. Gai managed to force a lot of sugar in me this evening."

"Gai? You were supposed to be training the new genin!" she admonished.

"They failed."

"How badly?" she asked, clearly worried.

"Instead of continuing to work on their own or giving up, or anything understandable of people with a common enemy, they all three turned on one another."

He was expecting an eye-roll, not a grim set to her lips, determined look in her eye. "You'll be doing them a favor, sending them back. Hopefully, they'll learn their lessons properly next time."

"What? You saying your team got it first try?"

"Oh, I'm not answering that!" she smiled, catching him. "Let's just say, we melt your heart right when you're ready to crush ours."

"Oh, really?"

"Yes, really."

"We'll see about that," he narrowed his eyes at her. "No snot-nosed brat, not even my sensei's son, can do that."

"You calling me a snot-nosed brat?" she challenged.

"No, that's Naruto-kun. Sasuke is turning into an ass hole. You... love-sick, fangirl."

Sakura shrank back. "How?"

"I visited the school when taking the genin team back and scoped out the next batch. Then I ran into your class on the way out the door. I don't see how any of you alone could impress me enough to teach you. Together, the three of you must trip over each others' feet."

Sakura suppressed a smile. Yes, that had happened once. That was only because Kakashi didn't like the fact that they were all sleeping in and decided to tie all their shoes together, and then seal the intertwined laces with minor explosive tags. No, she would not tell him about that morning. He would have to come up with that all on his own.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm sure you'll notice the direct rip-off from the Anime. I claim none of that! It just fit perfectly at the time!


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> pretty much a direct copy and paste from the original. Fixed a couple spelling mistakes, but please let me know if there are any more.

Jiraiya was making noise in Kakashi's bedroom.

"Shit, I was hoping he would sleep through the night," Sakura cursed softly, pulling herself up wearily. "Help me with him, please. I'm too worn out to deal with him if he's still disorientated enough to attack me instead of ask questions first."

Kakashi nodded at her, and lead the way. What he found on the other side of the door was a half-naked man examining a massive, recently healed, wound on his chest. Jiraiya looked on at himself wide-eyed, yet, with a soft simile.

"Tsunade-sama did this," he stated, then looked up at Kakashi. "But, why am I here and not in the hospital? She would have insisted I stay there."

Sakura relaxed. This wasn't the Jiraiya of this time. It couldn't be. Tsunade wouldn't be back for a couple more years. Kakashi, on the other hand, was slightly perplexed.

"Tsunade-sama has been gone for almost ten years," he explained. "My friend did this."

Jiraiya was now the one looking perplexed. "Wait... How old are you again, Kakashi?"

"Twenty-three," Kakashi narrowed his eye at the man. "You know that."

"I think I know what's going on here," Sakura tapped him on the shoulder. "Jiraiya-sama is, technically, a Hatake, right?"

"How did you know that?" both men asked her.

"Did Naruto do that to you, Jiraiya-sama?" she ignored the question, asking her own instead.

Jiraiya looked her over carefully. "Haruno Sakura... with darker hair? What are you doing here? I mean... now?"

Sakura smiled and bowed slightly, "I healed you. Isn't that enough explanation? Now, that wound had the Kyuubi's chakra in it. I have had to deal with it before. I know Naruto did it. I want to know why."

"Naruto-kun has no access to the Kyuubi," Kakashi interrupted. "How could this happen?"

"Four years from now, Naruto will be receiving special training from Jiraiya-sama, and me from Tsunade-sama," Sakura explained.

"You said I was going to be your sensei," Kakashi grumbled.

"You will," she sighed. "Now, stop making me reveal things. I need to speak with Jiraiya-sama alone."

"It's alright, Kakashi," Jiraiya tried to consol, still a bit confused himself. "I think I know what happened. You, however, aren't ready to hear it."

"No more secrets, especially in my own bedroom," Kakashi folded his arms over his chest. "I know better than to leave you alone with an attractive woman."

"She subdued me earlier," Jiraiya informed. "I think she can handle herself. And, no, I have no intention of trying to woo your student in your own bedroom."

"She's not my student," Kakashi huffed a little, then walked out of the room, closing the door harder than needed.

As far as he was concerned, he had lost rights to his room, so he would take over Sakura's bed. He would sleep right in the middle of the soft thing, hog all the blankets and pillows, and keep an ear on his bedroom. If anything other than the sounds of conversation escaped that room, he would go in there and yank them apart. Jiraiya was known for his ways. He may not have been the most attractive man out there, but he had a charm, usually helped by plying women with alcohol, that could win over most women. Since Kakashi was sure it had been over a year since Sakura had last had sex, she would probably be more willing right now, and Jiraiya was probably soon to find that out.

Jiraiya's eyes narrowed at that comment. "Since when?"

"He's twenty-two," she reminded. "He'll be twenty-three in a couple weeks. I don't become his student until he's twenty-five, almost twenty-six."

"So, I did go back in time again," the man slowly eased himself onto the bed. "And you, too, have come back. Were you sent here on a mission?"

"No," she answered, sitting in the desk chair across from him. "I was trying to go back a bit farther. I wanted to change things so one of my friends didn't get hurt, so she could be with the guy she loves, so that we all could be with the one we want. I don't deny that a lot of things have to stay the same, so that we all survive. But, a lot of us don't survive no matter what I do. I just want to stop the old laws from coming into effect across all the nations."

"Forced marriages, you mean," he frowned at her. "Then what are you doing here with Kakashi? He is terrified to learn our family gift. Did he tell you what happened the first time he used it? The second?"

"I didn't know he had ever used it."

"The first time... he wasn't even born yet," Jiraiya looked away, remembering the day he had first met Hatake Sumi. "I was walking with Sakumo and Minato in the area where Minato first showed up. We were headed to meet with my sensei and my team for training. Hiruzen-sensei didn't get much time for training anymore since he had recently become Hokage, so it was a special treat for the three of us. We were walking through the old village where Minato and I came from originally-"

"Wait," Sakura interrupted, "you're from the same time as Naruto's dad?"

"We're first cousins," Jiraiya answered. "I traveled to an earlier time than he did. But, we're supposed to be taking about Kakashi."

"Right," Sakura shook her head. "Please, continue."

"Anyway, when we showed up to the meeting point, Hiruzen-sensei was kneeling between the legs of a woman in her late teens, catching a baby boy. Sakumo nearly passed out on us. Minato ran back to town to get medics to transport the woman and newborn. Sensei and I stayed there. Apparently, Sinsei's mother was a midwife, and he had attended births before, so he knew a lot of what to do, thankfully. I was relegated to comforting the woman and keeping her talking. She lost a lot of her own blood and needed to stay conscious until help arrived.

"That was the day Kakashi was born. That was the day we learned that other objects and people could be transferred through time along with us, because, it seemed, the stress of being born had triggered Kakashi's kekke genkai when his mother went into labor, transporting them both far into the future. It turned out, Sumi was from a couple generations before Minato and I. We had heard a story of a woman going missing late in her pregnancy, no trace of her to be found. It was a local legend people ended up using to remind everyone to cherish what we had in the here and now.

"Sakumo ended up taking her in. They got married a couple years later. She died the next year while pregnant with their child. It would have been a girl."

Jiraiya gave her a moment more to absorb the information before continuing.

"When Kakashi was about four, he showed up one day with a circular seal on his cheek. We worked hard to get rid of it. It was blocking his ability to speak, and the person who put it there seemed to be able to use it to make him do things against his will. He was fully aware of what was happening, and unable to do anything about it. Uzumaki Kushina was finally able to remove it after nearly two days straight of working on it. When he was finally able to speak, he told us that it was Orochimaru that had done it.

"I wish I had believed him then," Jiraiya sighed, the regret showing through. "He did throw some suspicion on Orochimaru at that time, but it was another four years before we found out about the other kids. Almost sixty of the seventy children that had gone missing in a five-year span were due to his actions.

"Durring the time that he was under the seal's influence, he was forced to travel to the future again. He still will not speak about it a few years from now. I wonder if he remembers what happened clearly or not. I remember it, though. Now that I have lived it."

"What happened?"

"Naruto and I were training. Kakashi showed up, right between us, senbon in hand. The other end was slowly being pushed into his throat. He was facing me, four-years-old, being forced to commit suicide. I grabbed onto him, yanking him out of the way of Naruto's strike, a strike fueld by hate and the Kyuubi starting to take control. I took the hit while blocking Kakashi, then, straight away, returned him to his own time, in the hospital. But the pain, it seems, didn't allow me to return to the time I wanted. So, I came here. You were here instead of Kakashi. The rest, you know."

Sakura's hands were at her mouth. A four-year-old being physically forced to plunge a senbon into their own neck through use of a seal that wouldn't even allow them to cry out for help?

"I need to get back to Naruto a little after he passes out. If he remembers seeing the boy, I need to try to convince him it was his imagination, a part of a dream he had when he passed out."

"You need a pint of blood first," Sakura said after a moment. "I understand that Naruto cannot know about any of this. You, however, are not fully healed even if you feel better now than you did earlier."

"Kakashi keeps blood-replentishing tablets in the kitchen behind the spices. That's why I came here in the first place. I still have the keys... somewhere. He's moved the spare."

"I'm using the spare," Sakura corrected. "For the time being, I'm using your room. He told me this used to be your house, but that you pretty much gave it to him."

"I'm surprised he let you stay. Kakashi has never been one for allowing others into his personal space, so much that he used to stay in a one-room apartment while I was in town."

"Sandaime-sama ordered him to take me in," she revealed. "I'm, also, familiar with his daily routine. We worked together a long time, and lived together a few months before I came here. I've been here over a year now."

Jiraiya eyed her carefully, "You mentioned the old laws earlier. I take it, since Nohara Rin died, they force you to marry him."

"Yes."

"Please tell me he's opened up to you here. Sensei said it took a long time to break him out of his solitary, anti-social, depressing ways."

"Not much," she answered. "He started to, and has to a point. He failed his first team of genin today. They turned on each other, he said. He tells me things like that, and he keeps telling me that he isn't sure he can trust me, especially after what happened with the Uchiha clan. But, while you're here, he's agreed to share my bed so you can have your own space. Strictly for sleeping, of course. He hasn't touched a woman in almost a year, and I doubt he's turned to men. He's just that closed off right now."

Jiraiya thought on this for a few seconds. "Sensei might decide to start sending you on missions, Sakura-chan. Perhaps you need to start training with him again. If I remember correctly, unless he could catch one of his old ANBU team mates on a day off, Kakashi is probably not training at all right now."

"How would you know? I've been here over a year, and you haven't," she said, trying not to sound too accusing.

"I have my sources," he winked at her. "Now, girl, I need one of those pills from the kitchen he keeps hidden away. I need to get back to Naruto and fix whatever damage was done to him."

"Those pills will only do so much. Most of the chakra in your system is from me."

"It was, but I've been gathering some natural energy through sage techniques while I was lying here. I do it in my sleep without thinking. It's a habit."

"A good one," she noted, standing to go get the pill he requested.

 

* * *

 

 

This time, it was Sakura thrashing and talking in her sleep. Kakashi awoke to the sound of her crying over someone named Yamato. Sasuke was mentioned, as was Naruto. Sai, whoever he was, was seemingly a jerk who didn't care about the Yamato person. Noting that she was gathering chakra in her fists, he decided to wake her. The moment his hand touched her shoulder, she jerked around, staring at him with wide eyes in the moonlit room.

"Kakashi-sensei?"

He had about half a second before she was wrapped around him, crying into his chest, gripping his shirt while each breath shook her body. All he could think to do was pull her into a tight embrace, stroke her hair and tell her everything was alright. What else was he supposed to do? They were safe at home, not out in the field where he would have told her to close it off and save it for later. She needed a friend right now, and he was the closest one.

She slowly started to finish waking up, disentangling both from the nightmare and his embrace carefully.

"Where are you at, Sakura-chan?" He asked, watching her reaction carefully.

"S...sorry, Kakashi," she sniffed. "It was a twisted memory, from the war and before."

He knew those kind of dreams well. They would start off normal, then violent elements from real life would work their way in and screw things up in both known and unforseen ways. Sometimes, they just started out fucked up and got even worse. "Need to talk about it?"

Sakura's lips pressed together in a firm line. She wanted too, but what good would telling him do? It could lead to a conversation about why he wasn't with them when they caught back up to Sasuke that day. She didn't want to think about that, either, so she changed the subject. "Why are you in my bed?"

"I told you, I'm not sleeping on the couch or floor," he shrugged. "It's not like we haven't shared a bed before."

"True." Sakura proceeded to curl back up against him again. A brief moment of comfort lead to a loss of self control, and she pressed a couple soft kisses to his throat.

Kakashi remained relaxed, but his words told a different story, "Please don't do this to me right now."

"Do what?"

"Sakura, Jiraiya-sama is in the next room."

"And all I'm doing is kissing your throat. To hell with him if he thinks there's a chance of a better show."

Kakashi kept quiet, remained still. He liked the possibilities running through his mind right now. If she noticed the fact that her thigh was currently pressed lightly against his morning wood, she didn't give any indication. He felt it acutely, however, and a war was being waged behind his falsely relaxed exterior. He wanted her, right then, right there. He would want any woman right there, right then, but this was Sakura. She was not meant to stay here, in this time, with him. If he let himself touch her now, he was only setting himself up for loss later. He had to pull away now, before she found a way to pull him any deeper into her web.

"I need a shower," he said, pulling away again, out of the bed.

Sakura rolled her eyes and got up, too. "Its later than I thought. I need to get to work."

Kakashi didn't bother to even wave goodbye, just grabbed up his shirt and house shoes and went to the bathroom. A long shower, quick and quiet jerk off, and extra time drying off later, and he opened the door to nearly slam face first into a waiting Jiraiya.

"How long have you been there, jii-san?"

Jiraiya smirked at him, "Long enough to know you are walking a dangerous path. Get rid of her. Just fuck her, then loose her. You two are too far apart. Whatever she is doing here, it isn't for you."

"She said as much already." Kakashi shrugged. "But she has something, a book sensei wrote."

"It it here?"

"Yes," he answered, gesturing to the living room.

As Jiraiya thumbed through the delicate, old pages, Kakashi sat in silence, sipping his morning cup of tea and looking out the window. He wouldn't let the elder man leave with the journal, but he would humor the man. Jiraiya could read or copy anything he liked. After all, he wasn't likely to share anything he learned with anyone other than Kakashi.

Jiraiya ripped out a page and stuffed it in his pocket.

"What are you doing?" Kakashi jumped up, holding out his hand for the paper. "Give it back, jii-san."

"Neither you nor Sakura-san need to see this," Jiraiya frowned.

"Well, if you know so much about how to fix her world, do it yourself. Make sure she never comes here in the first place and I stay in ANBU where I belong."

"If she didn't come here, Kakashi, neither would your sensei and I."

...

"Any luck with Kakashi yet, Sakura-san?"

Those were the woods Sarutobi Hiruzen chose to greet her with the moment she walked in the door to offer him the week's completed mission reports. Sakura dropped the stack with a huff. She was sick of the constant little, yet not so subtle, prods from the old man to fuck Kakashi.

"I have the most recent Chunin mission reports that need your sign offs here, Hokage-sama," she answered instead. "I pre-read them. Shiranui Genma should probably be put in for a promotion."

The old man's eyes narrowed on her. "I will consider that, but what about my question?"

So, this time he wasn't going to let it go. "Jiraiya-sama is home for the moment, but will be leaving soon. He has to get back to Naruto. I put him up in Kakashi's bed last night, so we bunked together... Kakashi and me. I tried. He ran. I'm sorry I got in late."

"Hmm... Abandonment is an issue that runs deep in him. But, once you have him, he won't let go. How long before he ran?"

"A couple minutes," she shugged. "It's more than I expected, really."

"You sound..."

"This is wrong, Sandaime-sama!" Sakura rounded on him again. "I came here to change things, not make them what they were when I left! When I left, he said something... we had been together, sexually, here. I'm wondering if that's part of the problem I need to fix, or if I should just say fuck it all, find a way back farther and save Nohara Rin instead. If I save her, I don't have to be with him at all."

"How does that change anything else?" he asked, lacing his fingers together. "Kakashi will be a different man when you first meet him, for sure. He will be married by that point, possibly a father. It may be that he isn't even going to be your sensei. He will loose much more of his hardness, his combat effectiveness, if he is happier or preoccupied with thoughts of his own child. What will that mean for Sasuke, Naruto, and yourself? Think. When was the first time he put himself into harm's way for you three? What was on his mind?"

After a moment, she understood, "He was focused on the enemy most capable of killing us. The mission, and us three, were his priority. He wasn't worried about making it home himself, just doing his job."

"Remembering that, and knowing what you know now... Where did he put you at that time?"

"He told me to stay with the man we were supposed to be protecting. The boys were busy with the kid our age, one Kakashi said was even better and stronger than himself. He took on the man."

"Was your life ever directly threatened? Not you as a part of the group, but you yourself?"

"No, but..."

Hiruzen gave her the time she needed to speak. The memories were old, so getting them clear again would be difficult.

"He killed the boy. He was aiming for the man, and killed the boy. After that, he got quiet and became every bit the ANBU he was a few months ago. Cold, fast, no wasted movements. When the man stopped to talk again, catching his breath from being beaten, Kakashi got really angry. He started toying with him a little. He didn't kill him in the end, the man's former employer saw to his death."

"How did the boy die?"

"Raikiri."

Hiruzen leaned back in his chair, slapping a palm onto his desk. "Has he ever had to kill to protect you?"

"Yes."

"When is the earliest time you remember?"

Her eyes dropped away from him then. "The Chunin exam was the first time. He was there before I could react. Two opponents took kunai through their temples. He jumped right over my head."

"And what did he do after that? With you?"

"He sent me after Sasuke... Sasuke was chasing the enemy, but he was on his own. He needed back up, so Kakashi sent me and two others after him.."

"In other words, he trusted you," Hiruzen smiled at her. "Right now, he doesn't have any reason to trust you other than your word. What you are doing now will build his later trust."

"Sandaime-sama," Sakura looked at him again, "right now, I just want to go back home, to my time. I'm sick of not having any friends here. I'm sick of being your glorified secretary. No offense, but you're not as hard to keep up with as the Godaime. You're far more boring than keeping up the hospital. I want to go home where I am loved and appreciated, even if it is a shit show of govorning by the Daimyo and Council over ruling Kakashi at every turn."

"You're being selfish," he stated with a frown. "You have things you must do here if we are to get where we are, things that will allow us to survive even the Third War. Whether or not that changes your future is up for debate, but I want to be sitting here, and I know a lot of people who would agree that my being in this position will allow us to keep going smoothly. I fight every day to find ways to improve our situation and keep what is going right in line. I need you here, now. Konoha needs you here, now."

Sakura sighed, tapped the papers, and headed for the door, "I'll be back with the request list in a few minutes."

...

Wind and Fire were allies. A two man team was all that was required for the correspondance between the Daimyo of each for such a sittuation. Since she was so sick of being a "glorified secretary," the Sandaime Hokage felt Sakura should accompany Kakashi for this mission, strech her legs, remember what it was like to be in the field, even for a mission of peace.

As they stood before the Wind Daimyo, awaiting his reply to the Fire Daimyo, the Kazekage entered, bringing with him both Suna-nin and Sound-nin. Sakura tensed, willing herself not to grab for the kunai on her thigh. If the Sound-nin were with him, this was not the Kazekage. It was Orochimaru.

"How nice," the Kazekage nodded to them. "We can all have a discussion about the state of affairs over dinner."

"The Hokage is expecting us back early," Kakashi spoke up, moving closer to Sakura's side. He had picked up on her nerves and moved closer to restrain her if need be. They would die here if she acted against the Kazekage, he believed. "We already spent too much time on our way here. If we don't leave within the next few minutes, we will also miss an important secondary part of our mission in Fire."

"Oh? What would that be?" the Daimyo asked.

"My companion is a medic," Kakashi offered the information, lying about what followed, "the Hokage's cousin's grand daughter is due to have her baby soon, and he requested she look in on her as well as scan for any medical professionals with chakra moulding capabilities. Sakura wishes to come back to them later to teach them what she can about healing with chakra. Civilians could benefit from this quite a bit. Don't you agree?"

"Yes, indeed," the Daimyo smiled at him, then extended a sealed scroll. "Here is my list for your Daimyo. Please, have a safe and speedy journey home."

Kakashi waited until they were already back inside Fire Country before breaking the silence. He called a halt among several tall pine trees, choosing to stay among the branches rather than dropping to the forrest floor as he would have if he meant to stop for a meal. Sakura was still tense, gripping at the bark of the tree she crouched on with white knuckles.

"What set you off?" he asked gently. "What do we need to worry about with the Kazekage?"

Sakura took a few deep breaths, scaning the area, "It's not safe to say. Just... Just drop it. I had my chance and I failed."

Kakashi fought back a grin at the thought he verbalized, "You think you can take out the Kazekage?"

"That wasn't the Kazekage," she spat out, then clamped a hand over her mouth.

"Oh..." Kakashi glanced over his shoulder. "Who was he, then?"

Sakura was at war with herself right now. For all the damage Orochimaru would do, and had already done, he was still needed to join the war against Madara, Obito... and that bitch. "Someone I wish I could kill, but we need him to live for now."

"How long until we have to worry about him?"

"Stay out of his way, Kakashi," she warned. "You can't defeat him, either. From what you and Yamato-taichou have said, both of you failed already."

"Who is Yamato?"

"You call him Tenzo."

Kakashi blinked multiple times. How did she know about him? He had never brought Tenzo home, never took her out with him when he met up with his ANBU kohai. Gai didn't hang out with him. Did he talk about him in his sleep?

Sakura saw the shock and confusion on his face. "He will join our team three years after you become our sensei. Naruto will need to be better controlled. He is the only person capable."

"You believe so?"

"I know so," she nodded, then rolled up a sleeve to show a scar. "This is the only scar I haven't been able to remove. Naruto went out of crontrol, let the Kyuubi loose farther than ever before. We ran into that man pretending to be the Kazekage earlier in the day. Yamato-taichou saved me from him."

"Was this before or after you realized the swap?"

"After. Almost three years after."

"Do we tell the Hokage about this?"

"Quietly," she agreed. "And don't ask me to tell him who he is. I won't... I can't."

Kakashi reached out and put a hand on her shoulder, "Does he directly harm you?"

Sakura shook her head. "He hurt and hurts a lot of people I care about. He hurt you, Yamato-taichou, Sasuke, Sandaime-sama... Through them he hurt Naruto, me, Itachi-san, and hundreds, maybe thousands, of others."

He tensed up when she mentioned Itachi. "What does Itachi-san have to do with this?"

"A lot. Not even he can stop him."

Kakashi thought on this for a moment. Who could be so powerful that none of them could stop him on their own, or with help? Jiraiya-sama would be one such person, his betrayal would harm a lot of people, but Jiraiya wouldn't defect. He loved Konoha and its people. Tsunade-sama would be comming back, according to Sakura, so it wasn't her posing as a man. The only other person with a vendetta against the Leaf was a part of that team. Orochimaru. Yes, Orochimaru. Tenzo and Kakashi had both previously failed to attack him. He would have a grudge against Naruto because of Minato. Sasuke was the last known Uchiha besides Itachi, and, if Orochimaru couldn't get hold of Itachi, he would go for the younger brother in hopes of acquiring the Sharingan at some point. Sandaime-sama... well, that was a part of the same vendetta he had against Minato.

"I know who he is," he sighed after a moment. "How does he plan to harm Sandaime-sama?"

She shook her head rapidly, biting her tongue. "Hasn't he already? Isn't he part of how Obi-"

She cut herself off again, this time biting her lip hard enough to draw blood. "Damn it, Kakashi, I want to tell you! I want to stop it all! I want to go back farther and stop all of this from happening! I just... I can't fathom stopping what happened between the First and Madara in order to stop all of this. It goes back even farther than that! It goes back into the time of legend. I have no hope of blending in enough there to do anything!"

"You're not really doing anything here, now are you?"

The words were out of his mouth before he could think. He was so frustrated with her lack of information, or help in any regard, that it boiled over now. Here stood this treasure trove of information he wasn't allowed to access.

She lost it, too, pulling back and punching him right in the chest. She moved so fast he didn't notice until her knuckles met his jacket. The resulting rush of chakra from her fist blasted him back towards Suna by a couple hundred yards. The sound of his own sternum cracking nearly outweighed his surprise at her strength. She had told him before that she had studied under Tsunade-sama, but Kakashi hadn't ever seen the full capacity of that woman. Now he had an idea.

Sakura realized her mistake the moment he went sailing through the trees. ANBU were on them, she just handicapped Kakashi, and they were separated. With no way to tell if these ANBU were of Konoha or not, so she concentrated hard on making it to Kakashi first and foremost. If she could get to him first, she could take a chance at healing the damage she had done at least partially before the fight began.

She was grabbed from behind right as her eyes locked with Kakashi's limp form, not by hands, but by something else. Wooden restraints wrapped themselves around her wrists, ankles, and waist. Sakura relaxed, much to her captor's pleasure. He wasn't looking forward to tangling with someone who could take out his former captain so easily.

"Let me help him, Tenzo-san," Sakura called over her shoulder.

The restraints tightened. "How do you know that name?"

"I'm here with Kakashi, aren't I?"

"You threw him through the trees, didn't you?" he threw back at her.

"We were having an arguement. I'm sorry. Please, I'm a medic."

"You'd better help him. If you're lying, I'll kill you."

All the restraints loosened, except one around her ankle which contoured into a circle, sealed around her flesh. Sakura ignored it for now. She could worry about that later. Instead, she focused on reaching Kakashi and reseting, then mending the bones she had broken, then knitting back together the torn muscles and tendons. After a few minutes, as she was smoothing out the inflamed tissue around the area, Kakashi finally spoke.

"Sorry. I shouldn't have said that."

"No, you shouldn't have," she smacked him across the cheek, no chakra. "That's what you deserved in the first place."

"Senpai," Tenzo interrupted. "Why is she here?"

"What do you mean?" Kakashi asked, looking a bit relieved to see the masked figures around them. "Why are all of you out here?"

"Looking for you," he said. "The girl needs to get back to the Hokage right away. You're temporarily accompanying us again. That is, if she did what she said."

"When do we leave?" Kakashi asked, sitting up easy.

"Right now," Tenzo threw a bag at him. "Extra uniform. You'll want to blend in with us for this. You, Namikaze-san, can go home alone. Get the Wind Daimyo's scroll to the Hokage, not the Fire Daimyo."

"You want me to go alone?" she asked, hardly believing it. "I'm a chunin."

"I don't care," he replied, staring her down. "Go straight to Sandaime-sama. Talk to no one. Don't even check in at the gate until he dismisses you."

"Go, Sakura," Kakashi encouraged. "I'll see you when we're both back in town again."

...

Sprinting on the ground to conserve chakra, Sakura soon learned that her aprehension about leaving on her own was well founded. Three people were following her movements at a careful distance, setting up to heard her into a new direction, away from Konoha. More ANBU. She slowed down to allow them to catch up. If they saw her headband, one she'd exchanged through the Sandaime Hokage when she got stuck in this time, they would possibly escort her home.

No such luck. Their footwear gave them away. Those shoes were not made for a forrest, but neither were they made for sand. They looked... tighter to the foot, less defined soles. Rock climbing. Realizing her mistake, Sakura bolted again, fighting every instinct telling her to turn around, knock them out cold, and leave them. Yet, she remembered almost instantly, her main strength played into theirs. Being from Stone, these men would most likely be earth natured like her. One on one with their ANBU, she would most likely end up in a stalemate. There were three of them, and only one of her. Too late to sprint ahead again, she turned to face them, sucking in a deep breath, ready to use the Genisis Release if she had to. With that, she would easily outlast these guys, as long as one of them wasn't too much better than her.

Of course, they set up around her so that she could barely see two, and only sense the one behind her. Not knowing she was anything other than a Konoha chunin, only one of them attacked. It was the one from behind. Sakura rounded to block his punch with her left arm and swung to punch with her right. The fact that the man had been fondling his kunai with his left hand, however, threw her off. She assumed he would be a lefty and that her block would have his arm crossing his body. Right now, though, he was holding her right wrist with his left hand, right fist coming straight up at her chin. Sakura jerked into another spin, bringing both their hands behind his back, her left index finger glowed with a thin line of chakra, meant to be used as a scalpal. In this case, she intended on inserting it into the man's spine, extending it enough to damage the spinal cord and drop him. While that worked, something else happened.

The wooden circlet that Sakura had forgotten was around her ankle released, forming into a copy of the man who had put it there. He was already on the move, blocking the wave of gravel one of the two remaining opponents had sent her way with a solid rock wall he called forth from the ground.

"What?" Sakura spat at him, putting her back against his while she scanned for the third enemy. "You didn't trust me?"

"If Kakashi trusts you, I trust you," he answered, jumping up to the top of the stone. Before him, he could see that the very speed at which the enemy had sent his attack ended up with some of it flying back at him at a high speed. The man was breathing, still ready to fight, but clearly injured. "I thought this might happen, though. I was right."

The enemy facing him stood and stared for a moment, then threw a couple smoke bombs to mask his escape. The third never attacked.

"Sakura-san, get going," Tenzo motioned her back into the direction of Konoha. "Whatever their business was, it's apparently more important than us. Report this. I'll take care of them if I can and report back to my original."

"Yes, sir," Sakura nodded, then took off.

She could hear the sounds of small battles here and there as she ran, occasionally being diverted by some. Still, she found her way inside the walls and sprinting even harder, lungs burning, towards the Hokage Tower. Only, she was stopped at the door. While still arguing, a chunin came out, grabbed her by the arm, and pulled her inside. He dragged her all the way into the Hokage's office.

"Good, you're here," the Hokage breathed a short sigh of relief. "I need you to go straight to ANBU headquarters and prepare to receive patients immediately. You will be the only one threre to treat the people brought to you. Do you have anything to report before you go?"

"Yes, Hokage-sama," Sakura pulled out the letter from the "Kazekage" and spoke, "We were attacked. When I was on my own, I was attacked again. I only took out one of theirs, who looked to be ANBU, but didn't fight like one. The other two left quickly. I don't know if they got something or not."

"They haven't breached the walls yet, so no," he shook his head. "Now go."

"Yes, sir," she bowed quickly, then stopped. "Uh... I don't know where, exactly to go."

Lead there quickly by one of the ANBU detail consistently placed on the Hokage, Sakura was quickly left alone in a large, hall-like room with two other doors, yet fully stocked for almost any malady she could think of, minus simple things like vaccinations or a minor stomach ache. No, it was the strong stuff all the way.

Her first patient was brought in within five minutes. Morino Ibiki had a deep gash on his inner left thigh, right down to the bone. Actually, it went beyond that, the bone had a notch taken out of it, too. If this was the kind of patient she was supposed to expect here, she would have to conserve her chakra as much as possible until the wouned stopped coming in and she could accurately tell how much each would need. Sakura used chakra to rapidly regrow the missing chunk of bone and repair any arteries, but stitched up the rest the traditional way for now. Good thing, too, because her next patient had arrived.

Actually, it was multiple patients. Tenzo was among them. Though others were suffering caved in ribs and one a dangling arm, it was the woman with purple hair Sakura focused on. She was bleeding out from a slice to her throat. Thankfully, it was a clean cut, and her life was spared quickly. Sakura grabbed hold of one of the ANBU bringing them in and quickly showed him how to set up a standard IV line. It seemed he had some experience with this already, wich meant she begged him to stay and monitor the patients she had already worked through. Sakura created a low level clone to talk him through anything else that didn't need her immediate attention, such as Tenzo did.

Several ribs were snapped off inside his abdomen. One of them, it seemed, punctured his lung when he tried to stand back up and make his way to the woman with the slit throat. Sakura slapped him before cutting him open to physically pull the rib out of his collapsed lung. There was no time for grace right now. While she worked on the patient with the dangling arm, choosing to amputate it rather than make anny attempt at saving it even for the sake of looks, the man she grabbed yelled at her that Tenzo had started gasping and wheezing. Sprinting away from a compound fracture, she inserted a tube into Tenzo's chest instead, allowing his lung to re-inflate and push out the air in his chest cavity through the tube. Go figure he was the first person to start screeming in the room.

Seriously, the man with the collapsed lung was the one making the most noise. With a roll of her eyes, Sakura put a hand to his throat and disabled his vocal chords for the time being, then she went back to the compound fracture, quick glove change between.

What was only seconds of battle for the group of patients turned into three hours intensive work on the medic's end of things, followed by careful transportation to the hospital for most to recover. Tenzo and Ibiki stayed under her direct care, though. Neither had any official records at the hospital, not even their blood types. Until the ANBU medical staff returned from who knew where they were, Sakura was all they had.

As she and the man she'd commandeered to help monitor patients stripped off bloodied outer clothing, fresh uniforms were brought in for them as well as a well deserved meal and another cot. Her unwitting aid was allowed to go home as another had been supplied. Sakura almost hit the floor when she recognized the young man standing before her.

"Umino Iruka, at your service, ma'am," the scarred face blushed as he bowed to her, then stood up and did a double take. "You... Are you related to the Haruno?"

"No," Sakura lied. "Why?"

"Well, it's just... You look a lot like one of my students. You could be her young mother or older sister."

"Don't have any kids, not a Haruno."

"You should meet her. Her name is Haruno Sakura. She's the second smartest of her class. She could use a good female role model. I mean, a kunoichi role model. I'm sure her mother is a fine woman... not that I'd be interested. Oh hell with it. You know what I mean."

"Not me, mister... not me," Sakura fought the urge to smirk at his fumbling and rambling embarrassment, picking at the rice ball on the plate before her. "My name is also Sakura. Namikaze Sakura. You hungry?"

"I just ate, but thank you," he frowned, still studying her as he sat down. "That's an interesting mark on your forehead."

Shit. Just... SHIT! Did she really focus so much on saving these people that she let the henge drop? She checked her hair. Yep, it was candy colored again, instead of the red she'd grown accustomed to seeing in the mirror.

"What's the matter?"

"I..." she scrambled to think of an answer. "I usually cover it up with make up. Must have sweat it off. Silly birthmark."

He wasn't buying it. Her nervousness was giving it away. Damn teachers and their impecable capability at detecting bull shit! "You sure that's a birthmark, Namikaze-san?"

"Umino-san"-the phrasing of his name sounded foriegn on her tongue-"this is a sub-level of ANBU headquarters. I am the person responsible for healing the people here. If I can put them together, you know I can take them apart. Think. There's a reason I'm a part of this outfit. I don't want to talk about it. So, for now and any time we meet in the future, it's a birthmark. Got it?"

There, maybe he would think that yes, there was a story for the seal on her face, and no, he didn't want to learn about the reason for it. If she was one of them, one of the top-ranked killers, she couldn't talk about things like that and leave him alive... or something like that.

"You're a good liar," he smirked at her knowingly. "But, _Namikaze Sakura_ , I know things. We are _both_ here because of unique talents. Mine is picking out who's best to work in ANBU for the Hokage, and who's best to work for Danzo-sama. You, my dear, are not the kind of person to work for either. You are not ANBU, just as I am not ANBU. We are both consultants."

"Why would you tell me that?" she asked, feeling both a little more secure and a little more curious.

"Because you need allies in here," he said, looking pointedly at Yamato. "That one there, Kinoe, he chose twice to attack Hatake Kakashi despite the fact that they were both basically on the same mission. He sensed that Kakashi would freeze up and become a hinderance, and so chose to remove him from the sittuation. If at any time you or I were to become burdens to any of them when it comes to completing a mission, non of the real ANBU would think more than once about taking us out. Except that they are human, as we are. It's harder to earn, but their trust and friendship is what keeps people like us alive in the field."

"The man you called Kinoe... He chose to protect me earlier today, even when he thought I was trying to harm Kakashi."

"You're on a first name basis with Hatake Kakashi, probably the next man in line for Hokage. Of course he would protect you. You have to be something special for that man to allow you to just call him 'Kakashi'."

"Not exactly. Part of his mission today was to send me here if he came across us. The other part had to do with putting Kakashi back in the ANBU uniform."

Iruka frowned. "I don't particularly like Hatake-san's methods when it comes to paper work, but he is smart and efficient in the field. Another one of my students, a Nara boy, reminds me of him. They are best suited for the quiet, dirty, shaddow games of ANBU, would excell as strategic advisors to any official. They don't like the limelight of being an official, don't like to lead others into bad sittuations. If he was pulling Hatake-san back into ANBU, it was into a leadership role and out of the solo work he's been doing lately. I wonder why."

"I don't know. I wish he would walk through that door right now and tell me what happened. I don't like being held back like this. I know these people needed to be treated, but there are others who could have saved them. I _can_ fight. I _have_ fought. The Hokage knows this, but sent me here instead."

Iruka's eyes narrowed on her again. "What is it you wish for more? Hatake-san, or the fight? Or... the kill?"

"What is _that_ supposed to mean?" her eyes widened as she backed away from him for a moment. Those were not the kind of things she would have ever expected out of him.

"You said it earlier, 'If I can put them together, you know I can take them apart.' Are you really more of a killer than you let on? I wouldn't have pegged you for someone capable of actually taking a life, but... You may have just changed my mind."

Sakura thought carefully. Had she killed? Yes. Did she just enjoy beating someone into submittion? Yes. Which was more satisfying? "I... Look, Kakashi is basically my land lord right now. I'm subletting under him. We're living like a couple without the sex and affection and we split the bills fifty-fifty. If he dies, I'm stuck with all the bills myself and all his crap."

"Nice way to avoid the real question," he chuckled a bit. "But, in a way, you answered none the less."

"Oh? And what would your conclusion be?"

He gave her the most serious, understanding, telling look, and it send a chill down her spine as he spoke lowly, "You scare yourself with how easily you can kill someone."

"How do you figure?" she challenged.

"If you enjoyed the fight more, you would have said so, or even told me you're not a killer. If you loved to kill, you would have just been silent or decided to start talking about it. But, no... You chose to avoid the subject."

"So, what, are you grooming me to take your place at picking who goes where now?"

"Nah," he shrugged that off, allowing the subject to change at last. "The pay allows me to afford certain comforts I would otherwise struggle with on a teacher's salary alone."

That got her attention. "What kind of comforts?"

"Actual vacations for one," he brigthened up, obviously thinking about the last one he'd taken. "And, I like to treat my whole class to lunch now and then. I can afford to hire someone to mow my grass for me instead of hoping I have enough fuel in the tank to do it myself. I can enjoy the occasional glass of wine... I can treat my girlfriend to special evenings out... Lots of little things like that, all the time."

"If that's all true, you're a good man, Umino-san," she patted his shoulder, then looked at the cot. "I need to rest. Wake me up if either of them start complaining or looking off."


	9. Butterfly

Done arguing with the gate guard as to why she was signing in two days after entering the village during an attack, Sakura threw the pencil down and walked down the street to a fruit stand fully intent on buying either a sweet apple or a mellow pumello. She deserved something tasty and neutritious, she figured. Fruit was her go-to junk food when recovering from using a lot of chakra over an extended period of time. Two days ago, she had her hands full in ANBU headquarters. Over night she had to get up three more times to tend to the two worst off patients that the hospital could not recieve. Yesterday wasn't as bad, but she had to baby-sit the Hokage all day, slowly pulling poison from his frail veigns that had been introduced through a beverage. The man insisted on continuing to work through reports of the previous day's near-miss with enemy surrounding the village, forcing Sakura to hover around him and do what she could where she could when she could. His constant movement did nothing to make it easier on her.

Today, though, she would go home. She would go home and probably find an empry appartment. Her room mate had yet to check in, and she'd heard no rumors as to where he might be. Even Yamato had no idea. Perhaps there was some skelleton in his closet he had to feed, and this was the first opportunity in a long while. She hoped that was the case, and that she hadn't been yanked away from the one damn time he would need her in these years prior to her original apprenticeship under him.

Looked like she wasn't the only one with a fruit craving. Uchiha Sasuke, whom would be turning eleven soon, was looking over a small carton of cherry tomatoes, basket in hand already containing carrots, celery, bell peppers, and an egg plant.

"Hi, Sasuke-kun," she offered up a greeting, ruffling his hair just because she knew that this was probably the only time she'd get away with it. After all, at this point, he had no idea how to do the things that could kill her. Right now, she could win the fight with an unfortunate snease against him. "How are you today?"

"Fine," he answered shortly, but not unkindly.

"School going good?" she asked, as if she didn't already know he was bored of it.

"What school? We've been off for three days now."

"Oh, right. What have you done to pass the time?"

"Practicing."

"With?"

"Dummies."

"You know," she hesitated. This could present a problem for her in the future, "I could help you with that. A moving target is always better than a dummy."

He looked up to her, sizing her up. "You're old enough to have known Uchiha Itachi. Did you?"

Sakura's lips pursed. She knew what this was about alright, just not where he was going with it. "Briefly. We met briefly."

"Did you ever see him fight? Have you ever been his opponent?"

"I have seen him fight," she answered honestly. "Also, I have faced off against a couple Uchiha in the past... for training, of course. My sensei and his friend used to train against Itachi now and then. They taught me some secrets to winning."

His eyes widened. "Did you use them?"

"Yes," she shrugged. "You don't need to learn them, though. I'll bet that if you ever have to deal with your brother, you'll be able to read him like he reads others. But! You have to promise to set asside one day of the week to train with only me. Got it?"

"I don't believe you."

"You don't have to just yet," she shrugged yet again, checking out the selection of pumellos. "Give me a chance. Just one."

"Today then," he retorted. "Let's get our food, then meet up near the Forrest."

She didn't have to ask which part. Everybody in Konoha called the Forrest of Death simply the Forrest. Everything else was "the woods" or "those trees over there."

"I'll see you there in an hour," she said.

The hour over, and Sakura's suspicions of an empty house confirmed, Sakura met up with Sasuke just outside the fence, deep into the trees. Deciding to let the memories slip by for now, Sakura silently followed Sasuke to where he had been practicing. There were dummies and targets all around. Many marks in them showed that Sasuke had good aim, but only maturation would allow him to penetrate the targets deeper. A boy can only be so strong compared to a young adult.

"You really believe I will face him?" was the first thing Sasuke asked of her.

Sakura sighed, "Sasuke-kun, most people will want to keep you in the dark about him. They'll want to hide you from him, and take him out before he can hurt you anymore. But nobody really knows where he is right now, or what he intends to do. All I know is that for him, you are a loose end. People like him tend to tie up loose ends, right?"

"Right."

"So, it stands that you will possibly, likely, face him again. I want you to have a fighting chance."

"Why do you care? Nobody else does. Everyone thinks they're going to protect me."

"I won't." Sakura stated flatly, biting off the rest of her comment about him needing to distract Itachi from Naruto later on. "I will, however, help you to defend yourself."

"How?"

Great, back to the one word expressions again. "It's simple. You're smaller than him still, smaller than me, even. So we need to work on teaching you to unbalance someone of his height. If you bring the fight down lower, you'll have the advantage. We're going to work on ju-jutsu."

* * *

Day three had passed since the attack. After a quick check up on Sandaime-sama, Sakura was dismissed for the day. It seemed a search party had found Kakashi being dragged back to Konoha by his pack of ninken. Two broken feet and a sprained wrist made sure he wasn't in the mood to walk. The lump on the back of his head made it rather disorientating to try to crawl home. Pakkun had been sent to look for her, but she was everywhere but where she normally was when the dog checked for her. When he traced her scent down to ANBU, he wasn't allowed inside despite his master's status.

Right now, he was supposed to be at home, in bed, resting.

So, when she entered the place to fing him doing pull ups on the back porch, Sakura couldn't help the urge to scold him. Nor could she stop that urge from fading into giggles when her entrance startled him into dropping down on his ass with a thud.

"Shut up and help me up," he ordered sullenly.

"Yes, sir, Kakashi, sir!" she mocked, happy to grab him by his good hand and haul him up onto newly mended feet that were still tender.

Without prompting, Sakura lead him, slowly, back inside and into the living room. She sat him on one end of the couch and pulled his feet into her lap at the other end, healing chakra already going strong as she finished mending and de-sensetizing his damaged nerve endings, things normal medics couldn't or wouldn't bother with.

Kakashi moaned, "Thank you."

"Of course," she wispered, rubbing out a muscle cramp that had developed in his left calf. "Hand. Now, please."

He lazily offered his right wrist to her, propping up on his left elbow rather than trying to just sit straight up. The wrist was much better healed, but she rubbed it, his hand, and his forearm out anyway. During all this, she was checking him over for anything else that might have been missed. If it wasn't obvious or life-threatening, Kakashi had a way of making it not be there to anyone's knowledge. Except, she could always tell. Like she could tell that he had a slightly cracked nose right now, just through the small spiderweb of chakra she sent through his system to check everything all at once. With a purse of her lips, she yanked down his mask at the ears and pressed one healing finger to the bridge of his nose before he could protest, then backed off just as quickly.

Kakashi leaned back in the cusions again, looking at her with his mask still off. "I heard what you did for Ibiki and Tenzo and the others."

"Well, I certainly wasn't useless for once."

"You're not useless." he corrected. "Don't you ever say that again. I'll punch you, hard, if I ever hear you say that again."

Sakura blushed, thinking back to the last time they saw one another. "I'd deserve it anyway, after what I did to you."

"Technically, I deserved that. I was wrong. You saved the lives of my friends and collegues singlehandedly. And then you took care of Sandaime-sama. Now you're soothing me when I don't deserve it. You're some kind of amazing. You know that?"

"Are you doped up on pain killers or something?" she asked, very unused to hearing him talk like this.

"Do you honestly think I'd take them if they offered?" he deadpanned. "I mean it. You've made yourself useful to the Hokage, paid a lot of my bills, saved lives others would have called it quits on the moment they were brought in... And you welcome me home like nothing happened, like it's just another day. Actually, no. It's not just another day. You're actually taking care of my little bumps and bruises as if they matter. You're one scary woman."

"Scary?"

"Yes. You're treating me good. That's strange."

"I care about you," she answered softly. "I also know when you're hiding an injury that doesn't seem like much to you, but actually gets in the way no matter how you try to put it off. With what happened, I want you in top shape if it happens again soon."

"Is there cause for concern for that?" he asked, tensing up.

"Not that I'm aware of," she shook her head, patting his knee.

"Good," he sighed. "The farther I went after them, the stronger they got. The boys"-he meant his ninken-"had to protect me for a while. Over used the Sharingan after getting hit in the head. Fell out of a tree on my way back and broke both feet. It sucked hard."

"I bet," she smiled, but then did a double take. "Wait... How many days ago was that? When did you use your Sharingan?"

"Three days ago. Why?"

"You're already moving?"

"Yes...?"

Wow. Just. In two years time, he will have used that eye so much that it would put him down for a week after using it. How was it less than three days now? What was coming that she didn't know about as a kid?

"I was already low on chakra, if that helps answer whatever you're not really asking me," he provided. "I used it for about all of three seconds, maybe."

Sakura sighed. That made sense. It was pretty much a regular chakra drain, and, at this point, Kakashi really hadn't stretched the limits of his chakra control or bothered building up his reserves much. That would come after they lost Sasuke.

"Oh, by the way, I'm taking a day a week to teach Sasuke how to wrestle."

"Why?" Kakashi's eyes went wide.

"It gives him hope," Sakura said softly. "He's scared because everybody tells him he's never going to match up to Itachi-san. I told him that nobody could keep Itachi away if he wanted to get to him, but, since Sasuke is shorter, he should learn to bring tall opponents down to his level and lower. That way he'd have an advantage. Since Itachi is used to being on top of any fight, it would throw him off."

"You know if Itachi comes back, it won't be for Sasuke," Kakashi mentioned. "I'm sure you know it's the jinchuriki who are being hunted right now."

"Yeah, but Sasuke needs to have hope. We're going to need him to save Naruto, and we'll need Naruto to save Sasuke. So... don't let them kill each other when we become a team, okay?"

"It gets that bad?"

"Yeah."

"Why would I pass them?"

"You'll just have to trust me," she smiled saddly, hoping not to start another arguement. It just looked like it was going that way anyway.

Instead, Kakashi just kept his mouth shut. He just shut up and stared at her for a while. What he was thinking, Sakura couldn't guess, but she could see his eyes flit here and there over her frame. He looked at the scar on her shoulder at least twice. He followed the muscle lines in her arms back and forth. He looked over the light callouses she refused to allow to grow too much on her hands. He studied the slight variances in her hair color. His eyes ghosted over her lips, nose, jaw, forehead... Then they locked onto her eyes again. By this point, he seemed relaxed.

"What are you thinking about?" she asked, honestly curious.

"When's the last time you took a shower?"

Sakura blinked a couple times. "What? Do I smell?"

"It's been over a week for me," he admitted, ignoring her question as he swung his legs off of hers and stood up, grabbing her hand in the process. "Come on. We could use a shower."

"We?" he voice went up as she stumbled after him. "You can have your shower while I make dinner..."

"Nope," he shook his head. "We can make dinner after our shower."

Sakura's heart was racing. Just what was he going on about this singular shower for the both of them? He never made food with her after bathing, either. One would shower, the other would make food. It was rare for the both of them to do anything together anymore. Now, all of a sudden, he not only wanted her to wait to make food with him, but he wanted to share the shower? How the hell was she supposed to keep it together in the shower with him? She hadn't had sex in a couple years, and he was young and handsome and fit and...

Oh hell, the bathroom door was closed behind her! He was already stripping his shirt and turning on the water. There she was standing like a deer in a bright light as he pulled off his socks and pants.

"Yo, Sakura, arm's up," he commanded.

"Huh?" she asked, meeting his eyes again, having caught herself looking at his chest and abs, drifting a little lower to the top of his underwear. Wait... Were those staying on? She had mixed feelings about that. If they stayed on, she could keep it together. If they came off, she'd either have to run or stay and be totally embarrassed about being totally turned on the entire time they were in the room together. Oh, who was she kidding, the process was already started.

"I don't have anything you haven't seen before," he reminded her, putting a finger under her chin to raise her gaze back on his. "I've seen a few naked women myself, so it's not like anything you have is going to be a shock to me."

Shock, not at all. Also, she had seen him fully naked a couple times... when he was fifteen years older and starting to soften around the edges and getting a few wrinkles and the start of crow's feet. Yeah, even then he was attractive enough to get her off the first time they had sex. Hell, to be honest, even before that she had been known to get in an evening work out with him, then mastrubate in the bath later to images of him working on the punching bag, or the light touches when they sparred light contact, no chakra allowed. Oh dear. And, if the Hokage himself were to strip down, she wouldn't be shocked at what she saw, but that didn't mean she'd be turned on either. Sure, Sakura's body wouldn't shock Kakashi, after all he had seen her in her underwear and a string bikini by now, but that didn't mean he wouldn't like what he saw. Gods help her if he liked what he saw as much as she liked what she saw right now.

She couldn't promise to keep all the light touches they were bound to have now innocent. They'd have to touch here and there when switching who got to rinse off.

"Sakura," he smiled knowingly at her. "I'm not asking for anything other than a shower together. I just... I don't know. I want to have a shower with you. I feel like I owe you a helping hand with washing your back and hair or something after what you did for me earlier."

"O...oh," she shook herself out of her thoughts, focusing again on his eyes. Right. Those gray and red, gentle, happy eyes. Yes, for the first time in a long time, she saw relaxation and happiness in his eyes.

Sakura promptly lifted her arms and allowed him to pull her shirt off. Once the water was flowing hot and steamy, they shucked their underwear and got under the hot spray, first Sakura, then Kakashi. As he soaked, Sakura grabbed for the shampoo, but he beat her to it, motioning for her to turn around. With her back to him, it was far easier to pretend it was only her in the shower, until his fingers began working the shampoo into her scalp, especially at the base of her skull. Oh that felt good! Then he wouldn't move for her to rinse it out. No, instead he pulled the detatchable head down and rinsed it out with careful motions, making sure none got into her eyes. The process was calmly, silently repeated with the conditioner. He handed her her loofa to wash her own body with while he took care of his hair quickly, but stopped her when she got to her back. He took that chore away, and then he carried it down her sides, down her hips, all the way to her ankles and back up again. Sakura heard, strangly, a hitch in his breath as he came back up and grazed the side of her breast. She chose to let it go and reached above his head, arching backwards to keep from looking at him, for the shower head to rinse off with.

Kakashi had his ass firmly planted against the wall of the shower to keep her from brushing up against his body. He thought he could do this. He really thought he could take a half-step into a closer relationship with her. Nope. His damn penis decided it really wanted to override his brain today. Her ass was the perfect heart shape, and her medium sized breasts were silky smooth. That seemed to be all it took to get him going. He had half a stiffy, damn it.

Before she could turn around, he had grabbed the loofa, soaped it up and turned to face away from her to wash himself off. Sakura kept quiet as she replaced the shower head, grabbed the soap and just rubbed it on his back straight forward. Did she really have to put those little hands right into every sore spot and make it feel better? Couldn't she at least leave him one to focus on instead of her body? Nope. She worked right down to the top of his ass, then pressed a coupld pressure points in the sides of his ass cheeks, alerting him to pain he didn't know he had. On the one hand, it felt great to know she was still thinking medically. On the other, his mind was all about having a set of her fingers wrapped around his shaft right now. Woudn't it be just great to get rid of this damn stiffy here in the shower where it would all rinse down the drain? If only she would just reach around and jerk him off and forget it happened? Yeah, she was a medic, after all. She knew about the pain a man would suffer with blue balls.

Shit. It was so much harder to think himself out of an erection when she reached for the shower head again, rubbing her breasts and crotch against his back and ass in the process.

"Oh hell, I got more soap on me," she muttered, proceeding to rinse herself off again before turning the spray onto him. "Turn around so I can get the front."

"Um..." was all he could utter, staring down at his own dick.

"What?"

"You uh... I will rinse myself. I still need to shave, so... Dinner? Can you set out what you want?"

"Plan backfiring, Kakashi?" she teased, knowing.

"Yep."

"Turn around anyway," she coaxed, putting a hand on his shoulder and gently pulling. "Like you said, you don't have anything I haven't seen before."

"Did you enjoy it?" he asked, blushing so hard she could see it in his neck and back. "When you um... with me?"

Now that took more effort than it should have, she thought. They were both adults here. Why was he worried? "Of course I did. It was fast, but that's how we both needed it at the time."

"Oh."

"Turn around, Kakashi, please. I promise not to bite... well, not for blood anyway."

He sighed and turned, stiffy starting to deflate a little due to the pause and conversation. Sakura refused to look at his crotch, instead focusing on just rinsing him off from chest to waist. Initially, she meant to stop there and let him get the rest, but the urge to just get this done and over with had built back up inside her. It would benefit them both if they just fucked the hell out of one another for a night, she figured. Sex was healthy, after all.

So she rinsed him off the rest of the way, but didn't let him turn around to grab a razor before reaching up and putting the shower head away, making sure to again graze her breasts and crotch against him. Sure, she could have handed it to him to put up, but that would defeat the purpose. Sakura could feel his heartbeat racing through their light contact right before he made the decision to just grab her by the ass, pull her up and kiss her hard on the mouth. He kept kissing at her mouth and throat until seconds after her back hit the wall, feet coming to rest on the edges of the tub for support.

"Do you really want this," Kakashi asked, voice pitched low, eyes locked onto hers, finger stroking a wet lock of hair away from her cheek. "I want this. I want you to know that... Just answer me. Do you want me inside of you?"

"The shower is dangerous," she whispered, thinking critically now of all times. "Can we do it in the hall?"

Ah, yes. Showers were dangerous, and the hall had soft carpeting with thick padding that would benefit them both far more than a porcelain tub or ceramic tiles. Kakashi kicked the water off, and picked her up again. This time, she wrapped her legs around him and supported herself for the most part. He half thought and grabbed a towel to wrap around her dripping body, then went on auto pilot and walked them both into his bedroom instead of stopping in the hall.

"You still haven't said yes," he reminded, a little bit of logic working its way back in again. "Do you want me inside of you?"

"Yes," she answered with more of a breath than a voice.

He didn't remember how he ended up kneeling between her legs, but he was there and enjoying the view already. With one hand, he made sure to caress her thigh before bringing it higher and hooking her heel on his shoulder. He brought that hand back down again to dragg a finger tip across her core, stopping to play with her clit a moment until she bucked against him. Dipping lower again, he felt the heat and the wetness beginning to seep out. Damn, she was ready fast. A couple pumps of his dick in his hand, and he was ready again too.

Sakura wasn't sure which happened first. Did he kiss her and then plunge his dick inside, or was his dick sliding inside her walls just before his mouth pried hers open? It didn't really matter which, because he seated himself inside her slowly, and kissed her deeply. It wasn't rough and eager like she was expecting. No, he was taking his time. He was trailing kisses over her cheeks and under her jaw as he pulled out again, slowly, gently. He went a bit fast as his hand caught her breast, bumping into her enough to move her whole body, but went still again. His hand moved down her side, playing with the unmarred skin there, swirling over her belly button as he began to pull out again.

Sakura watched her lower abdomen distort slightly with each languid thrust. The pressure of his penis inside her channel actually raised the skin outside her body, showing his depth and thickness as it nearly reached her belly button over and over again, stretching her inside, pressing into her cervix. It was slightly painful, but that only added to the pleasure of knowing they were feeling each other's bodies as clearly and intimately as possible. She could feel the sweat starting to form on him, not just the water droplets. He was concentrating, telling her that they didn't need to rush today. They had time, for once, and he wanted to make the best of it.

"Sakura, look at me," he commanded, voice almost dangerous.

"I am," she said honestly, eyes trailing from their joining up his stomach, across his chest and shoulders to his throat, stubble covered chin, slack mouth, and eyes that were clearly trying to say something important.

"Touch me."

"I am." Indeed she was. The leg that wasn't thrown over his shoulder was snaked around his thigh, pulling him in closer with each thrust, the hand he wasn't gripping and steadying himself on was trailing his ribs, gripping hard with each new penetration.

But, when her eyes met his again, he started a steady rythm sure to stare right back in her eyes the whole time.

Sakura could feel it coming. It wasn't going to be one of those over the top orgasims, but she was definitely going to cum for him this time. It hit slow and grew in intensity as he picked up the pace, peaking out when he latched onto her throat. When he felt a small squirt of warm liquid hit his balls, Kakashi let go, hard and fast he came, and Sakura kept on going, slow and steady. She was still cumming a little when he finished and pulled out. Feeling her still clinging hard around him, he decided to suckle at her breast a little, teasing her clit with his fingers until she arched off the bed and came harder. He backed off, but Sakura rolled on her side, throwing her leg over his hip to press her groin to his again, making sure to shower him with kisses now.

"Fuck," he hissed, the coolness of the water and sweat clinging to his body catching up to him. "Now we have to wash off again."

"No we don't," she shook her head. "We just need to rinse off, shave, and go make dinner."

"You can really think about all that right now?"

"Yes, but I'm going to need help walking back to the shower. My legs are shaking. You made me cum longer than I thought possible."

Kakashi chuckled lowly, grinning like an idiot.

Finishing their shower and eating dinner was a quiet affair. This time, though, they didn't eat at the table. They got cuddled up on the couch and turned on the radio. It was some talk show they barely listened to, instead choosing to feed each other bites of food and then curl around one another for a nap.

* * *

Kakashi woke up first, detecting a small change in Sakura's heartbeat. It happened again a moment later, then evened out... matching his own. He knew because he could no longer feel a difference between them, but he could see her pulse in her neck. Then his skipped a beat and the spell was broken. They were close to the same rythm, but not exact anymore. This got him thinking. People said things like that happened when it was true love. He just wasn't sure if he truely loved her. If she woke up and told him she loved him, he wouldn't have an answer for her. No, he couldn't answer. If he ever said out loud that he even cared about her, it would put her at risk. Him openly caring about anyone was generally a death sentence for the other person. He oculdn't do that to her. Not her.

Panic started to set in. He replayed this afternoon in his mind over again. Kakashi knew he was an idiot. Even though she had said yes, he should not have touched her. He was an idiot for thinking he could keep it together in the shower. Those light touches, after two years of no sexual contact, felt too damn good. Then what the hell did he do? He got off inside her, with no damn condom. He'd poured himself straight into her tight warmth without a second thought. The happiness of knowing she had made it home okay washed out all logic, replacing it with a primal drive to just be inside of her, to physically show her how he felt about her still being there with him.

Kakashi slowly extricated himself from her embrace and walked to his bedroom to find some clothes. If he stayed there any longer, wrapped in her naked warmth, his body was bound to react again. Natural, primal instinct feld damn good to follow, but it was the way wrong move for him right now. Clothes firmly secured in all the right places, mask up, hitai-ate in place over his left eye, Kakashi quickly scribbled a note telling her he went out for a walk. He wanted to treat his pack to a lazy evening in the park, or so that was his excuse. Leaving the radio on, he locked the door quietly behind himself and headded straight for the hospital.

He couldn't say anything to Gai, or Asuma, or anybody else Sakura might end up having regular contact with over the next few days. Those people would probably be coming by to check in on him, probably having heard that he'd had a head injury despite the fact that it wasn't all that serious. No. He had to see Tenzo. Tenzo would know how to help him re-detatch from Sakura without hurting her too badly.

Entering the man's room through the door really got Tenzo's attention. Sure, there was a window, but Kakashi wasn't sure which one was his yet, so he had to check things out from the inside first. Looking at his kohai, Kakashi simply sat in the chair and stayed sitting straight up.

"What happened?" Tenzo whispered. Breathing too deeply hurt a lot right now. "You look like somebody died."

"I fucked up."

"Who?" Tenzo always knew it came down to a who, never a what, with Kakashi.

"Sakura; the woman who saved your life."

Tenzo struggled to sit himself up in the bed. "You killed her?"

"No!" Kakashi waved his hands between them. "No... I... I had sex with her."

"Okay... How is that a fuck up?"

"She lives with me. We did it all nartural. I think... I think I'm starting to..."

"Hyperventilate?" he suggested, smirking. Kakashi lost for words was a rare sight.

Kakashi shot him a dirty look.

"Oh. You love her."

"Yeah. That." he admitted grudgingly.

"So? Problem?"

"I'm not a family man, idiot."

"That didn't stop you from exchanging letters with my sister."

"I never had sex with her, and writing letters doesn't mean having a family."

"Not what she told me."

"Please explain how I could have ever had sex with your sister if we were never even in the same country at the same time."

"Oh," Tenzo looked down. Kakashi had got him there.

"My point is," Kakashi brought things back on topic, "I've only been out of the game for two years, and I don't know how to detatch from this one. She lives with me, and she's adamant about being at less than arm's length."

Such relationships were dangerous for any shinobi, ANBU especially. Kakashi was not an ANBU anymore, but he still didn't quite know how to cope outside of those paramaters. He still kept two "go bags" at the ready at home. He still occasionally visited personal escape locations in other countries when a mission permitted him to be close enough anyway. He still ducked into corners to henge into someone else, then send a clone of his normal self ahead just to check for tails. He made sure to keep up with three day fasting once a month to make sure he could do it if need be. He snuck in work outs and training as play with Maito Gai or finding new positions to perch in for longer periods of time above the heads of oblivious passers-by. He tested his skills at breaking into the ANBU headquarters, the prison, and the Hokage's home and office and re-arranging the occupants' belongings without setting off alarms or being caught. He even broke into a bank three times to take money from his own safety-deposit box and transfer it into one being kept for Uzumaki Naruto, then snuck out again just in time. And, yes, he did occasionally help kids get their cat back or an old woman with her shopping. Angry cats up high telephone poles were good training for avoiding injury in dangerous locations. Old women, especially those with grandkids, could shop and shop and shop, leading to a kind of weight training mixed with a new kind of balancing act. Kakashi found ways to work training and stealth and speed into every day whether or not he was on a mission. He only seemed lazy because he only ever got caught after these activities during a rest period. Still, he never allowed himself to fully commit to anyone for any reason. If the Hokage ordered it, he would kill Tenzo on the spot, even now.

But Sakura?

He let her sleep next to him. He let her cook for him. He let her bring a child into his home for a while. He enjoyed cooking for her. He enjoyed the scented shampoo she used. He had come to rely on her presence after a nightmare to ground him in the present reality again. He was scared when he came home to an empy place. He was elated when she caught him working out that afternoon. He let her see his face daily. He had bare sex with her. He had to force himself to leave her alone at home. He'd rather be there with her than anywhere else in the world. He'd rather be sitting at the kitchen table drinking tea and wearing nothing but a towel while she talked about how much more dilligent of a Hokage the Sandaime was than the Godaime or the Rokudaime would be.

He'd rather watch her curl up with Bull and the rest of the pack around them while they all watched a movie together, maybe even fall asleep that way. He could see all of them together on the floor filling up on cheese puffs and popcorn and penuts. Urushi would get the worst gass. Shiba would yawn a lot. Pakkun would fall asleep on his chest. Sakura would fall asleep on Bull. Bisuke would use Sakura's butt as a pillow. Akino would lick her feet raw by morning. Uhei and Guruko would fight over who slept in Kakashi's lap. Guruko would win and Uhei would curl up by his head instead, then snore all night.

"Earth to Kakashi-senpai," Tenzo waved a hand infront of Kakashi's eye. "What just happened there? You're not one for day-dreaming."

"See," Kakashi pointed out, "she's had that affect on me, too."

"Well, I'm glad you're not with us anymore if this is what you've become."

"It should be you," Kakashi dropped his shoulders a little more. "You're the one who should be feeling this stuff. I don't want it. You said you did."

"And I do," he agreed. "I want at least five more years in ANBU first, though. Remember, senpai, I'm only trailing behind you because I was born four years later. I'm going to out live and out perform you! Then, I'm going to have more kids than you, too!"

Tenzo realized his mistake a split second after the words exited his mouth. Kakashi tensed up again, looking frightened the instant Tenzo had said "kids."

"Look," he placed a comforting hand on Kakashi's shoulder. "This woman is the highest caliber medic I've ever come across. The amount of work she did the other day on her own would have dropped three normal medics in half the time. If she doesn't want kids, or knows you don't, there won't be any. She won't let herself get pregnant. Whether through jutsu or through normal female contraceptives, she will have been using protection."

"You don't understand..." Kakashi shook his head. "The most I can say is this. The Hokage had her move in with me because he wants to see my family line continued. She is very aware of this."

"Is she not aware of your dislike of children?"

"She is."

"Has she ever intentionally harmed you?"

"No."

"Then I believe she respects your wishes. She'll want to butter you up to the idea with more time. She should know a bit about you by now. If she does, she knows it's going to take a lot longer to break you into the idea of having a family. Right now, if you want, since you're not ANBU anymore, you, her, and your pack can be a family."

Kakashi resisted the urge to ask him if he was a mind-reader. "I don't want a family. Ever."

Tenzo frowned. "And here I thought you were being groomed to become Hokage one day."

Kakashi frowned. "Don't remind me. You're welcome to the position if you want."

"The only thing that might get me there is if you die. If you try to kill yourself, I'll find Sakura-san and send her to you're dumb ass in time."

Kakashi chuckled a little. "Thanks. You're no help at all today."

* * *

True to his word, Kakashi could be found in the park. He had three other clones of himself, each with two balls. All eight of his ninken pack were present and playing fetch. He had explained it once as a kind of relay race for them. Doing this tested their endurance as much as it stretched his chakra control. It was training hidden behind a game for all of them. If this was a lazy evening, Sakura would hate to see what the idea of a hard workout would be. Then again, they may not have been at this long. They could have all gotten bored and decided upon this instead.

"Ah, there you are," Kakashi smiled up at her, eye forming that closed happy line it did when he smiled his biggest. "Feel up for a jog around the loop with us? The boys were just getting warmed up for it."

The loop was the outter most path of this particular park. One lap was about two and a half miles. Sakura had jogged her way here from five miles already, and some of the dogs were beginning to pant a little hard. It seemed Kakashi was being a bit of a liar when he said they were only getting warmed up. So, instead, she pointed at the river.

"I say it is a hot enough day out for a swim instead," she called out loud enough for even Shiba, the ninken the farthest away, could hear clearly.

A swim would serve two purposes. It would continue the cardio work out, but cool off the dogs and her.

"Then, we can go home, dry off, and order some take-out and watch a movie. What do you guys say?" she asked all of them. "I brought home two big jars of peanut butter and six bags of cheese puffs just for you guys before I came here today."

Lots of whines and "please boss"'s filled the air in Kakashi's direction. Damn, but that woman had stolen his dogs, too... And, what was the deal with the movie watching day-dream earlier? He didn't know where it came from, but it seemed like a real memory. Then Tenzo had picked up on it. Now Sakura was suggesting it, almost exactly as he'd envisioned. Well, at least she and he would be dozing off separately. With the audience of the ninken pack, he would be less tempted to have sex with her. Yeah, why the hell not?

Kakashi dispelled the three clones and sprinted for the water, leaving his nine companions behind, and dove in. He had hit the water before the rest of them took that as permission and agreement on his part.

Of course, neither Sakura nor Kakashi had thought about one thing. They had six towels for the two of them and eight wet dogs. When they got home, still dripping wet since the sun had gone down before they got out of the river, Kakashi was at a loss as to what to do. Sakura came up with the answer. The dogs stayed outside until both she and Kakashi were sufficiently dried and changed clothes. At that point, she took a couple box fans and plugged them in on the back deck Two dogs each could dry themselves there while she and Kakashi took towels to the remaining four. Six towels and two fans dried ten individuals perfectly.

And then the power went out.

"Well, we could have a cook out instead," Kakashi suggested.

"We should probably go see what is going on with the power." Sakura said instead.

"If there was a problem, there would be some noise by now," he shrugged it off. "Come on. I'm sure the boys and I can listen to your stories about your team."

Sakura looked at him like he was an idiot.

"Just some light ones that don't involve me. Please?"

Sakura sighed. "Get the sausages from the freezer. I'll get the fire wood lit."

Smiling, he headed for the fridge. Looking inside, he decided to bring the case of beer, too. First, it would help him forget any slips she made. Two, it would help her feel better about talking.

Of course, by the time they cracked open their second cans, the power came back on, but nobody in the Hatake house cared. Sakura was starting to talk about the time Naruto decided to borrow some shampoo from Sasuke. What he failed to realize was that it wasn't shampoo, but hair styling gel. He read the instructions and applied it to his damp hair... all of his damp hair. His leg hairs, arm hairs, and crotch hairs were all glued to his clothes in five minutes, and his hair stuck out on end worse than Kakashi's. They made him walk the rest of the day like that, all the way home before he got to wash it off.

Lying on their backs, the fire dimming, the two stared up at the stars. Kakashi was the first to note the cluster of new stars in the sky near Leo's front paw.

"There they are," he breathed out.

"Hmm?" Sakura asked, not understanding the sudden downturn in his mood.

"Every time someone dies, a new star shows for three weeks in the sky," he explained. "When people die together, their stars end up near each other. Look there. There are the people who died the other night. Our enemies and comrads are together in the afterlife."

"Why would they be together? Is it because they died together?"

"No," he sighed. "It's because they had a common purpose in life and died close together. In the afterlife, I doubt the nation which one served has any meaning. Only that you served."

"That makes life kinda pointless, don't you think?"

"Maybe..."

"But it's not. You know that, right? Our lives, however seemingly insignificant in the short term, are meant for something. Every person has a role to play. Without the smaller roles, the big ones loose meaning. We are going to win out. Every nation is going to win out. We just have to have faith and survive in the mean time."

"No," he sighed, looking to her. "We have to keep getting stronger. We have to live to see the better days. It's up to us to make the days better. If we don't get stronger than our current enemies, the victory you speak of will never happen."

Sakura thought back to the days after Sasuke left her on that damned bench. Yes. If she had remained weak, she would not have survived the war. As a testement to that, when they brought Sasuke home, she demolished that bench with one pinky toe, then threw the remains over the walls. She saved one piece of wood from it and used it to clober Sasuke's face a couple times before they hauled his unconscious form to the jail nurse's station to recouperate.

And him? If he had chosen to leave the path of a shinobi when his father was disgraced, he could have lead a happier life. It would have been easier, by far. He could have laid down arms when Obito died, when Rin died, when Minato died. He could have cowered away from the Akatsuki when Asuma-sensei was killed, or, before that, when Sandaime-sama was murdered. But, no. He used these things to fill the fire in his soul, the fire that burned to make those deaths continue to mean something to those around him, to the world. He used them to fuel his own desire to train harder, to keep on top of the game, and protect those around him.

Right now, Sakura didn't care about all that. She prayed for the souls of the dead, that they might find peace and not end up in the woes of the coming years.

"I never did find Minato-sensei's star."

Kakashi's voice brought her out of her thoughts.

"I never found his or Obito's. Rin's, though... that one hung around for only one night, then became a shooting star. It means she's watching over someone still alive. I wonder, now, if that person is you."

"I doubt it," she found her voice now. In the years to come, Kakashi would tell her once, and only once, about seeing Rin durring the war. He told them all, specifically, that it had been Obito that Rin watched over the whole time.

"Why?"

"From what I understand, her mother taught her to envy me," Sakura sighed ruefully. "I had our father and my mother. She only had her mother, and that was only up until a couple years after I was born. My father was upset that she and I could never grow close. He was happy to have had two kunoichi daughters."

"Yeah, sure... until I killed one," Kakashi shot out. "I wonder how the hell I'm supposed to face him when I meet him again."

"Why would you see him again?"

"It is customary for a Jonin-sensei to meet the families of his genin team prior to their fist meeting. It is meant as a reminder that they are human, someone's baby, precious to Konoha as individuals and to remember that when shaping them into tools. The full humanity is not meant to be tempered out of them unless they are marked for ANBU early on, like my kohai, Tenzo. I was, too, but my father and my sensei refused to allow it. I had family to protect me from Tenzo's fate... as do you. Sasuke-kun does not. I am the only one who can make the assessment on whether or not he should be held back or advanced quickly."

"What? Why you? Are they considering him right now? Already? He's only nine-years-old!"

"Tenzo began that path when he was three. The Nii-daime had his eye on me when I was four and passed that on to the Sandaime, but my sensei and my father refused to allow it after I graduated two years later."

"But, that's too young for such a consideration!" Sakura sat up, hovering over him.

"Not for the two of us," Kakashi shook his head. "Sakura, we grew up in a time when adult shinobi were in short supply, and children like us were considered more precious than the sun. Konoha had two genious level, skilled, strong for their size todlers biting at the bit to be as strong as the male role-models they grew up with. I had my father, and Jiraiya-sama to watch every day. Tenzo had Danzo and Orochimaru to look up to. All four were legendary men, and we were their protoge."

"Well, Yamato-taichou was more of their creation than their student," Sakura interjected.

"How do you know that?" he narrowed his eyes.

"Just something Orochimaru-sama said once. It was the first time I'd seen him in three years. Yamato-taichou was on his first mission with us, and we had to improvise to lure Orochimaru-sama out into the open. When he recognized taichou, he said he would have liked to see how that old experiment worked out, but didn't have time or something like that. Taichou explained it to us later that he only got mokuton because he was a part of Orochimaru's experiments as a child. That had to be the scariest thing for a kid. Don't you think?"

He nodded once. "Yeah. For me, it would have been, but Tenzo wasn't taught to distrust him like I was. In fact, before Orochimaru took him away, he was taught that the Sannin would save his clan from destruction. Orochimaru fed them all with lies about keeping them safe from themselves, from their technique that would kill them if used too much."

"Did he save them?"

"No." he shook his head, looking away. "Only Tenzo and his sister survived. I haven't heard from her in almost a year. She's traveled far from the shinobi nations now. It's her mission to see the world. She wants to see all of it, all the pretty things, and all the good things she can find. She's your age, but has the most upbeat, happy, naieve thought process. I envy that woman, even if she commandeered my body for a while and beat up my insides. It was worth it to see her escape fate."

"How sweet of you," Sakura smiled, then leaned down to kiss the corner of his lips.

Kakashi stopped all movements, even held his breath. Him? Sweet? Besides playing fetch in the park with the pack, or reading Jiraiya's novels, his favorite past time was taking the pack hunting. Not just any hunting, but deep in enemy territory, hunting other ANBU. He liked to listen as their screams turned to gargles as they choked on their own blood after one of the ninken ripped into their throats. He would do this on or off the books, pretty much whenever the mood struck. Did she know that about him? Probably not.

Sakura was a healer. If she had nightmares about anything, she took the time to tend to others in order to calm herself down. When he had nightmrares, he woke up ready to kill. She knew that, but she didn't know that the nightmares could sometimes keep him awake for days on end. When that happened - though rare - he would only be able to feed into the emotion, let his mind fill up with the sounds of the enemy dying instead of... instead of reliving Minato-sensei, Rin-chan, or Obito-baka in their dying moments. New nightmares would be created for a short time, and they would be peaceful bliss in comparison to the usual nightly torment. Then his mind would ease off again, allowing him to have semi-normal dreams for months on end. This last time,...

Had he really only had a handful of nightmares in the last couple years? Had it really been over two years since the last time he unleashed like that? What changed?

Oh... Her...

For the first time, Kakashi embraced the butterflies welling up in the pit of his stomach as he locked eyes with the woman above him. She really had changed him on some inner level, hadn't she? Sure, when he fought, he still fought to win, to live, but he wasn't fighting for the lust of it anymore. He wasn't interested in the activities that made sure his bounty kept rising in the BINGO books since she showed up.

Instead, Kakashi was more interested in not disturbing her as she slept. He wanted to fall asleep to the sound of her breathing. He wanted to share a pot of tea in the morning, quietly watching the sunrise and the village wake up around them. He actually wanted more C rank missions, just to keep a positive cash flow into his bank account. C ranks were more of a vacation for him, and he wanted to bring her along now. The missions he thought Sandaime-sama was putting them on together as punishment really weren't that bad, just boring.

"If you hold your breath any longer, your lips will start turning blue," Sakura warned. "My breath can't smell that bad, can it?"

Oh... Maybe that storm of butterflies really had turned into a burning sensation in his lungs now. Kakashi sucked in a couple lung-fulls of air before reaching up to pull her into a more direct kiss, then laid back and let his fingers rest on her shoulder.

"What was that for?" she asked, startled, but smiling.

"Thanks," he smiled up at her, maskless face showing off a handsome, yet goofy grin. "Just thanks."

"For reminding you to breathe?"

"Yeah, sure." he shrugged it off, then sat up. "How about we call it a night?"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The story about the hair gel is based on something that happened to my husband. I accidentally convinced him to shower with hair gel. Then he drove our (stick shift) car across town. I got an ear full of "I showered with WHAT? Are my pubes gonna get hard, TOO?" not long after.


	10. Chapter 10

Kakashi made sure to go to his own bed, shutting the door before she could join him. His mind had been on killing earlier, even if only for the fact that he hadn't thought about killing in a while. With his track record, he would very well wake up with a full blown chidori covering his hand sometime in the early morning. Usually, he would down a couple swallows of something stronger on nights like this, but he'd ran out of the good stuff weeks ago. Gai was partially responsible for that, and so was Sakura. He just kept forgetting to restock.

True to his nature, Kakashi went to sleep worrying about what the night would hold, and his dreams were filled with terrible, terrible immages. This time, though, he wasn't seeing dead family, friends, or past enemies. No. He saw her. He saw Sakura bruised, broken, sliced open at the middle, throat slit, but still talking. She kept asking why he didn't save her. Where was he when she needed him? It was too late. Orochimaru had done this to her. Kakashi didn't stand a chance.

"Fuck!"

It took a minute to realize the explicative came out of his own mouth.

He hadn't yelled this time. The word was barely a breath, almost inhaled as he awoke, curled around his pillow, sheet, and fitted sheet. It looked like the fitted sheet had a new tear. Time to replace it. His mind focused there, centering on the tear. Something was wrong about that tear. There was a kunai sticking through it. The hand holding the weapon was... his own.

Oh, shit...

What if Sakura had insisted on sleeping next to him tonight?

Kakashi gripped the handle so hard his fingers went numb, then flung it at the wall. He didn't bother aiming, he just wanted it gone. The metal made a dull thud on the carpeted flooring as it landed, but Kakashi kept looking at the sheet.

Who was he kidding, thinking he could potentially have a normal relationship with anyone, let alone a sexual one with her? If he had slept beside her tonight, that blade may have ended up in her chest. His nightmare would become partially true, but it would be his own fault, not someone else's.

Was it a dream, though? Was she really still alive? This wouldn't be the first time he dreamed of the past, only to forget it really happened upon waking. Sometimes it took a couple hours to get his head straight, memories in order, when first waking up.

Nervous about what he might see - or not see - Kakashi got out of bed and carefully, quietly, went to peek through Sakura's cracked door.

Light snores greeted his ears. He pushed it open a little farther, easing inside. To his relief, it wasn't Bull snoring. It was Sakura, sleeping on her back, hair splayed across the pillow, one arm over her stomach, and the other over her head. The sheet had been kicked off and she was left in her sports bra and boy-brief style panties. Her stomach and chest rose and fell with each breath, perfectly timed.

Kakashi still wasn't convinced. He opened his left eye and surveyed her chakra flow with Obito's Sharingan. Her system was almost perfectly at rest. Almost. She was kneading a tiny amount of chakra at the moment, and it seemed drawn to her forehead. He had caught small glympses of this before, but never really studied it. Now could be a good time to do so.

Well, it would have been if there wasn't a darker shaddow among the shaddows in the hall.

Kakashi stared down the shaddow knowingly. This was an ANBU. He could only think of two reasons for ANBU to be visiting him like this. Either they had a mission for him to take despite the fact that Sandaime had taken him out of that scene, or they were here to kill either him, or Sakura. If this was one of Danzo's ROOT agents, it would definitely be the latter option. Kakashi hated the bull-shit in-fighting between the two groups of ANBU, and he knew ROOT still existed despite their official disbandment. A subsect like that didn't just dissolve. They went into deeper hiding while blending in with the Hokage's official ranks. Danzo had offered him a position three days before Sakura moved in. Of course, he said no like always.

The shaddow moved down the hall and into the living room. Kakashi followed silently, remembering to leave the bedroom door cracked the way Sakura liked.

Once in the living room, Kakashi noted two things. One, the shaddow was a bit shorter than him. Either this ANBU was female, or possibly still young; maybe both.

The uninvited guest then turned on a lamp. This was strange behavior. Both mission orders and "retirements" could be handed out in the dark efficiently.

"What is it?" Kakashi broke the silence first.

"Had to check up on you," the young man answered honestly, showing trust by removing his bird shaped mask. It was still unpainted.

Masks weren't painted until after the person came home alive from their first S-ranked ANBU mission. Kakashi recognized him by his voice before the hood and mask were removed. "Minato-sensei, you were right to hide yourself."

The blond looked like he'd been crying. "I didn't mean to put you on edge."

"Sandaime-sama took me off ANBU a couple years ago. Seeing an agent made me wonder if Danzo wanted to retire me permanently."

"Well, I can't speak for him," Minato replied, face sour. "Why are you out?"

"I don't know. Not to gloat, but I was his third best opperative. He wants me to be a teacher now."

"How's that going?"

"I've failed two teams on their first days already."

"Kakashi-"

"I'm not you!" he hissed, remembering quickly to keep his voice low. After all, Sakura was sleeping. "I'm not cut out for turning academy weaklings into killing machines."

Minato stayed silent for a moment, thinking before he spoke again. "Don't you remember all the times I saved you from killing? I saved your life a few times, but, mostly, I killed someone so you wouldn't have to."

"Yes, and I'm still thankful for those reprieves."

"So, do that for them."

Kakashi shook his head. "It's more than that. These kids they're putting out there... One team turned on each other. Another followed orders to the letter, no improvisiation. How can they be ready? Idiots."

"If I remember correctly, your team worked against each other until you learned how to use them to gain an advantage. You were completely self-serving. That was even after you'd been in the field for years, passed off from one team to the next for being a rule follower, able to leave someone behind if saving them got in your way. It's a wonder they didn't put you on solo-missions sooner, or retire you behind my back."

Kakashi hung his head. The whole thing was true.

"Kakashi, I'm sorry," Minato stepped a little closer. "I didn't come here to throw your faults in your face. I just wanted to be sure you were all right."

"What happened right before you came here?" he asked, indicating the tears in his mentor's cloak. "Those look singed."

Minato was grateful Kakashi didn't mention the state of his puffy eyes or cracked voice. "I watched my own death. Mine. Kushina... I won't be fast enough to protect her, no matter what. If I live, she dies, and so does our baby. If I die with her, at least our baby will be alright. He will be alright, won't he?"

"He is... a bit short on friends right now. Worse than I was. But... I have been told he will grow to be a very well liked, even loved, man. He will turn out alright. Better than I could hope to be."

"What about you? You know you mean just as much to me as my son."

No, Kakashi didn't know that. He always figured Minato just put up with him because the Third made him do it as a test to pass before becoming Hokage.

"Surprised?" Minato attempted a smile. "Come on, don't pretend you don't know what you mean to me... unless... I should shut up now."

"Sensei, you're overwhelmed. You can stay here for the rest of the night."

"Thank you," Minato let a sigh of relief wash over him. "Is Jiraiya home?"

Kakashi always noted that Minato never spoke Jiraiya's name with any honorifics. The two were close. Closer than sensei and kohai should be, and it bothered Kakashi a bit. He refused to call Minato without the honorific of sama or sensei. He never heard anyone else do this with their mentor unless they did not respect them. Jiraiya's other students always called him sensei. Minato, though, was almost always at ease with the man. It was like they were close family or something. But, Jiraiya was a Hatake, and Minato went by the same last name Sakura was using in public to differentiate herself from her true family, the Haruno. Kakashi's eyes narrowed in on Minato a bit. There were definitely some Hatake traits there, which would explain his ability to travel to the future and back again to his own time. Kakashi felt he was missing something important.

"Kakashi? What is it?"

Kakashi decided to be blunt about it. "You never did tell me exactly why you can travel to the future. You must be decended from the Hatake. Are you and Jiraiya-sama closely related?"

"He never told you?" Minato looked a little confused. "Maybe he figured I would."

"Tell me what?"

"He and I are first cousins," Minato stated matter of factly. "We grew up together almost like brothers most of our lives until my sister died. He arrived to Konoha first. I went a little farther into the future, and he and your dad found me. I was actually living with your dad for a couple years before you were born. Then I moved in here for a while with Jiraiya. Like you did after your dad died."

That's when some of Jiraiya's words came back to him. He said that if Sakura hadn't come here, neither would he or Minato. What did she have to do with it? "Do you know anyone by the name of Namikaze Sakura?"

"I think I'll just crash on the couch now," Minato replied swiftly.

"Who is she to you?" Kakashi asked, having learned that trick from watching Minato use it on Kushina when he wanted to avoid a work-related fight with her.

"Uh uh. Nope. That's one you'll have to get out of Jiriaya or figure out on your own."

Kakashi got right on top of him, looking over the man's blue eyes, slightly upturned nose, sharp jawline, higher forehead that he hid with his hair cut and hitai-ate. "She's your mother."

"I didn't say it. You did," Minato smiled for real this time, poking a finger in his chest.

Kakashi walked back down the hall and pushed Sakura's bedroom door back open, staring at her. They'd had unprotected sex a couple months ago. Could she be pregnant? Would she tell him if she was? Would she even know by now? Was Sandaime-sama right about her three years ago?

"She's not expecting," Minato's voice whispered near-by. "You would know. There's a scent change not long after it happens. I learned that when Kushina brought Mikoto over. Mikoto was going to break the news to Kushina, but I commented on her scent change before she could say anything. Your nose is better than mine. You would know."

Kakashi calmed himself. Jeeze. He knew Sakura could skip out at any moment if she chose to try and learn her kekke genkai again. Who the hell was he to think that he and her would possibly be the parents of Namikaze Minato, the Yellow Flash, the Fourth Hokage? "Don't scare me like that."

"You scared yourself," Minato corrected. "Got a blanket I can use tonight? I can make do with the throw pillows, but I like to have a light blanket or sheet even in the summer."

Just like Sakura, Kakashi thought to himself. Instead of commenting, Kakashi went to the linnen closet and pulled out a sheet and an extra pillow. Around this house, you never knew when you'd need extra bedding, including pillows. Hatake ancestors had used this particular location for many, many generations as a safe haven. The house was rebuilt many times over the centuries, sometimes smaller, sometimes bigger. This place was handed down specifically with the intent of catering to those out of their own time without awkward questions or wild explanations that might get the time traveler locked up in a mental institution by others. The Haruno had their own safe havens, and Sakura's childhood home was one of them, though she didn't know it, probably. To her, they were just family passing through from Moon Country to say hello. Kakashi knew the Haruno women would be time traveling again in the future long before she even learned such a thing was possible.

Kakashi went to his room and pulled out an old tank top and pair of jogging pants to let his sensei borrow for the time being. Sakura probably wouldn't like to wake up to the sight of a fully uniformed ANBU curled up on the couch. That would probably be more awkward than automatically knowing it was Naruto's father.

Boy was Kakashi wrong. He'd tried reading at his desk for a little while, but fell asleep in the chair. Thankfully, the little bit of drool that accumulated landed on his arm and not the book, but that didn't matter to him at all right at the moment of waking. Sakura was yelling with joy. She was yelling "Naruto!"

"No, no wait," Kakashi heard Minato practically yell back. His voice had to be raised to break through to her.

Kakashi was in the living room in a flash of speed, right about the same time that it hit Sakura that it wasn't her old team mate staring at her. Same coloring, different features. Her shoulders slumped the moment Kakashi caught sight of her.

"You're not here to take me home, either, are you?" she asked with a bit of a sniffle.

"No, I'm sorry," Minato reached out to touch her arm. "You've still got to do something here. I don't know how you got here, but I know whe're you're going. You'll be just fine. Maybe I can bring Naruto to visit you?"

"No," Sakura shook her head, pulling back. "Leave him out of this. If he never learns he has a kekke genkai, he'll be better off for it. The whole world will. It's bad enough he can create so many shaddow clones at once."

"Umino Iruka says otherwise," Kakashi commented, announcing his presence. "He said Naruto can't create a single one. Not a useful one, anyway. That's why he still hasn't graduated."

"Oh, just you wait. He'll learn how," Sakura warned. "When he does, it'll be his biggest advantage for a while. He can use it to cheat on time when training, too. The Rasengan took you guys a long time to figure out, but with you and Yamato watching over him, he'll use that army of clones to perfect it in a fraction of that time. He'll be the one to apply natured chakra to it."

Sakura fought back a tear. She didn't realize just how much she missed Naruto until she saw Minato on the couch. He had been sleeping until she got excited and screamed with joy. In these years, she was not allowed to visit Naruto. He had always been good at detecting lies, and he might talk about her to her younger self. Sasuke was accepted company because he knew how to keep his mouth shut about personal affairs. She wasn't relavant to their training at a unit now because they weren't a unit yet. She wouldn't be relavant in the future, because that was Kakashi's job. He might privately ask Kakashi about her in the future, but not in front of Naruto or her younger self.

"Who's cooking breakfast?" Kakashi asked, breaking the awed silence coming from Minato. "Me, the usual cook, or Sakura, or you, Sensei?"

A key twisted the lock on the front door.

"I guess we're plus two now for breakfast," Sakura commented at Kakashi.

"I hope people are home and hungry," the booming voice of Jiraiya entered.

"You've been gone for two years, and you have food?" Sakura asked. "Then you get to cook for all four of us!"

"Four?" Jiraiya looked over the top of his grocery bags at the three of them. "Make that five. I picked up a rather confused girl on the way back. She was looking for the Uzumaki household and got turned around. She asked me for the Uchiha household next. Then she started to ask about the Hyuuga, and I asked her if the Hatake home would be suitable for breakfast while we figured out what we could do to help her. The girl rather liked the idea of seeing the Sixth Hokage today, if he was home."

Struggling behind him was a girl of maybe ten or eleven, practically dragging two loaded bags of food. Her dark hair threw them all off at first, but there was no denying Minato's blue eyes set brightly in her pale cheeks... her pale, whisker marked cheeks. Minato and Sakura shared a knowing look. Marks like that only came with housing at least part of the Kyuubi. Was she a jinchuriki? Did she know what those marks signified? What people would do to her if Jiraiya hadn't found her? Even Kushina had enemies just for being a jinchuriki. Naruto had it worse. This girl, though, was smiling happy. She, also, got talkative when she saw the group of three staring at her.

"Aunt Sakura! Rokudaime-sama!" she greeted cheerfully. "And... who are you, sir?"

"I'm...family," Minato settled on that answer at first. He wasn't sure if she should know about him.

"You don't look like my family," the girl studied him closer. "Well... I guess you have the same hair and eyes and tan my dad has."

Realizing that neither Kakashi nor Sakura could ask the kid's name without seeming strange after the way they'd greeted her, Minato asked for them. "What's your name?"

"You first," she crossed her arms over her chest defiantly.

Minato smiled through the little stab of pain he felt when he realized she was reminding him of Kushina. "Minato."

"Minato what?"

"Haruno Minato," he slipped. Well, maybe she didn't know Sakura's heritage. What would his honesty cost him in the eyes of Kakashi and Sakura, though? They knew him to be a Namikaze or Hatake, not Haruno. Technically, he never confirmed anything about his parentage to Kakashi the night before.

"Uzumaki Himawari," she bounced and waved at him. "Nice to meet you."

"It's good to meet you, too, Himawari-chan."

She looked at him with her head cocked a little.

"What is it?"

"Well... You're not my family. Anybody who's not my family always calls me Himawari-sama 'cause of my dad. You don't. Why?"

She wasn't upset with him, but confused it seemed. Minato had to think on the spot. "I'm uh... I'm not from here originally. You know the Haruno live in Moon Country. Who is your dad?"

"Uzumaki Naruto, of course! He's the Seventh Hokage, you know!"

"Yes, I know that," Minato lied. "But I am family, though. If Sakura is your aunt, you know she's a Haruno by birth, right? And, I'm a Haruno, too. So, can I call you Himawari-chan instead?"

"I like that better anyway," the girl agreed.

"Good. You go get cleaned up in the bathroom and do whatever you girls do that takes forever. We need to get started on breakfast. Me and Jiraiya are going to cook for everyone."

"I hope you cook better than my dad," the girl told him. "He can pretty much bake a cake with instructions, but nothing else that isn't microwaveable."

"I promise you we can cook better than that," he winked at her. "My wife has yet to refuse a home made meal I've cooked. Not once."

"You better be telling me the truth. My mom's a really good cook. She makes the best pork ramen ever!"

Another little punch to the gut. "Go get cleaned up, please."

Kakashi sat down beside him, commenting softly so that Sakura wouldn't hear, "You would have made a wonderful father. You handled that well."

"That girl is my grandaughter," Minato perked up a little. "I guess this gives me an excuse to go see Naruto. I can take her back to him."

"You'll have to tell him the truth," Kakashi mentioned. "You'll have to break it to him that his daughter can at least travel back in time, and she didn't know she did it. Besides that, how will you know what point to take her to?"

"I have a simple method for that," Minato looked at him. "It's called asking her to remind me what day it is. I take her forward a little at a time, check a news paper with each stop, and dial it in from there. Easy."

"Thanks for making me feel like an idiot."

"I called you that last night, didn't I?"

While those two chatted nervously about Minato going to see his son's accomplishments beyond creating a pretty daughter, Sakura drifted into the kitchen to speak with Jiraiya. He already had the rice and eggs boiling in their respective pots. While those cooked he started putting away the rest of the groceries he'd brought.

"You already knew to bring extra," Sakura commented. It was more of an accusation, really.

"Minato needs to decide just how much he wants to change things himself," Jiraiya replied. "So far, he has decided not to gather extra information or to do anything too far above standard. Sure, he will be Hokage instead of me, when the time is right, but he's not being careless. I knew he would be here, because I sent him here to recover. An older me did, anyway, and said older me told me I would need food for five people today."

"Do you have any idea what bringing that girl here could do? When I left my time, Naruto was forced to marry my best friend, also a blond. That is not her daughter."

"Are you saying I brought her here?" Jiraiya turned to her. "So what if I did, at some point, teach her to use her gifts?"

"You wouldn't even know about her existence if she didn't come here today," Sakura commented.

"Or, maybe I brought her here to show you some hope. Something changed in the future or the past. Something changed, and that girl I brought home is proof of a happier tomorrow. I talked with her a lot on the way here. She told me the name of her mother, and her brother, and your husband, and your daughter, and a whole load of other names I'm not going to remember off the top of my head right now."

"Being that she is Naruto's daughter, I left when he was with my friend. Maybe they don't work out either and he ends up with that girl's mother."

"What you told me, and what that girl has blabbered about are two very different things, Sakura," Jiraiya held a finger to her face. "The future you left is not a possibility right now. It has been changed, for the better. You won't have to marry Kakashi."

"If that were true, I would be different, wouldn't I? I would be different or never here to begin with," Sakura stated, staring him down. She knew good and well she could tear this man to pieces if she wanted. Sennin or not, Jiraiya knew she had learned from the one person he feared most... Tsunade.

"When one future is eleminated, anyone from that future caught in the present or past, will be stuck in the new chain of events unless they succeed in undoing the change that cause their time to cease to exist in the first place. You are stuck. Settle in. This world will have two of Haruno Sakura for many years to come."

Sakura bolted out the kitchen door, suddenly needing fresh air. Even if she decided to push and push at learning to time travel, it wouldn't matter now. She would never get to know exactly what happened. Minato wouldn't take her to any time, because she no longer had someone in the future to potentially miss her. Her younger self was well taken care of at the moment, and she certainly couldn't impose on her biological family despite the fact that she probably didn't need to keep that a secret any more.

Jiraiya knew who the currently 11 year old Haruno Sakura would be marrying, and it certainly wasn't Kakashi. She wondered who the man would be. How did they meet? Why would she want him? How would he be brave enough to ask her out... her, the student of the Fifth and Sixth Hokage. Would she even be Tsunade's apprentice?

"Aunt Sakura?"

She shoved down the confusion and lost feeling to put on a brave face for the girl. "Yes?"

"Is Uncle Sasuke still home? Sarada and Boruto were talking about him maybe going away again for a few days, but I found something at the store with Jiraiya-san I wanted to give him for his birthday tomorrow."

So... the men were still holding up pretenses about what year it was? Well, Sakura was going to burst the girl's bubble right now. Uncle Sasuke? Sarada? Boruto? She might be calling Sasuke uncle because he was a friend to Naruto in the future. Boruto sounded like an idiot had named him. Sarada, however, sounded like a name Sasuke would come up with. This girl had absolutely no idea what she was doing, talking about these people like this.

"Himawari-chan, come sit with me, please," Sakura patted the spot at the top of the steps beside her. "I have to tell you something very important."

The girl had the first traces of apprehension on her face as she slowly did as Sakura asked.

"I'm not your Aunt Sakura, and those men aren't quite who you think they are, either," she admitted.

The girl started to tense up more, looking a bit ready to bolt.

"We love you anyway, though," Sakura assured. "You see, your dad doesn't know it, but his dad was a time traveler. It's a special blend of two other kekke genkai. It seems you have that gift, too, and you came back in time to us. Minato lied to you. His name is Namikaze Minato."

"That's my grandfather's name," Himawari whispered.

"Because he is your grandfather. The Sandaime is still alive. Kakashi isn't your dad's teacher yet. If you don't believe me, walk out back with me and look at the mountain. Look at how quickly you got lost just trying to go home."

"I thought that was a genjutsu Inojin was practicing on me," Himawari nearly whispered, looking down at her feet.

"Listen, we're going to eat breakfast, and you can talk about your family all you want. Then Minato is going to take you back to your dad. They will work something out to help keep you from doing this accidentally again. You get to tell people about your adventure here today all you want when you go home. Here, though, you have to be careful what you say. You can only tell Kakashi, Jiraiya, and me about anything from the future."

"Why?"

"Because we don't want people to mess it up, and it's our job to make things right."

"Hey, Sakura," Minato stuck his head out. "What do you girls want to drink? Food's almost done."

"Almond milk, please, Grandpa," Himawari beamed up at him.

"Same," Sakura added, not looking at him.

Grandpa wasn't a word he was ready to hear, but he kinda liked it, knowing it came from his biological grandchild. If it was any other kid of this generation, he would have been offended. It seemed Sakura told her the truth, and the kid took it well.

"Don't call me that in the open, Himawari-chan," he warned. "Not until we get you home, and only in front of your dad."

"What about Boruto and Mom?"

"Is Boruto your brother?"

"Yes."

"Then that's alright, but he has to make the same promise. Just you two, your mom, and your dad can't know about me being... around."

"Promise," she hopped up, ran over to hug him, then went on inside to sit at the place Kakashi pointed to.

Minato stood out on the deck a little longer, staring at Sakura. She hadn't moved since he came out to ask his question.

"You might want to come in before it gets cold," he suggested.

"Who are your parents, Minato?" Sakura asked instead, still studying the boards she sat on. "I know you're one of the twins my father used to tell me about. Hatake and Harutno bloodlines combind, both kekke genkai passed into you and your sister. I was pretending to be asleep when you and Kakashi looked in on me. I heard everything. You asked him if he knew what he meant to you. You didn't deny that I'm your mother..."

"The man I grew up knowing to be my father," he answered in all seriousness, "was called Hatake Jin. My mother was called Haruno Meiko."

Sakura looked up at him, struggling not to cry or break something. "Then what the hell is my purpose here? Am I supposed to just keep on working for Sandaime-sama until he dies? Then what? Am I supposed to sit out the war? Am I supposed to sit back and let Nagato destroy Konoha?"

"Nagato?" Minato's eyes widened. "Please. Please, just stop talking. Ask Jiraiya, or... Or I can grab an older Kakashi when I take Himawari-chan home to come back here and talk to you. Something... I don't know. I just... I know an older me changed things up legally to ban the forced marriages you spoke about. The topic came up and was dealt with. That's why that girl in there exists. We will find you a place you like here and now, one where you can continue to have a positive impact on things until..."

"Until certain things I know are comming no matter what our personal sittuation may be happen," Sakura cut in. "I can't sit it out while Kakashi dies protecting my friend. I can't sit it out while Naruto is almost robbed of Kurama. I can't sit it out when the Five Great Nations join up to stop the world's ending! I can't afford to get weak while hiding from everything! I can't stand the thought of sitting here, waiting for Kakashi to come home so I can patch him up again! I want to do something truely useful!"

"You will!" he shot at her, raising his hands. "I need you to keep on doing whatever it is you're doing with Kakashi. What we talked about last night... It's like he actually cares about people again. He cares about the students being sent to him. Before you, they wouldn't have meant shit to him. The mission was god, and team mates were expendable. He knows he can't just throw those kids to the wolves in order to complete a mission now. You've done something to him, something good."

"Well it's already done. Can I please go to some other time without him in it? Before I get too much more attatched?"

"But... Sakura..." he sat beside her, nearly whispering so that the others couldn't hear. "I know you might not like this, but I need you to be atatched to him. So do Jiraiya, and... well... a lot of people. From what I am starting to learn because of Himawari-chan, your feelings for Kakashi can be the catalyst to save our world."

"My feelings for him, no matter how strong, can't make a difference in the world at large. It can only affect me, and him."

"You're wrong," he smiled at her. "You are so very wrong. You'll see that one day. I don't know when, exactly, but it will happen."

The door opened again, and the girl yelled at them, "Your food is cold already! It's not nice to let good food get cold!"


	11. Chapter 11

Kakashi took a second.  She'd said he looked suspicious.  Really?  Wasn't that the point?

"Well, I'm Hatake Kakashi.  My likes and dislikes really aren't any of your business.  As for the future....  Hmm...  Oh, and I have lots of hobbies."

"So... all he really told us was his name," the young Sakura muttered, looking to the boys, frustrated.

"Alright," he broke up the brooding before it could begin.  "Your turn.  You, on the right.  You go first."

He singled out Naruto first, hoping the kid wouldn't have much to say either.  Ramen this, ramen that.  Damn, the boy was a lot like his mother.  Sasuke was exactly as predicted by his teacher.  Single minded.  When it came to Sakura, he wanted to find some polite way to slap the shit out of her.  Really?  Boys were her only focus both on likes and dislikes?  So far, he did not see how they could be as great as he was told they would become.  Not as a team.  He only had hopes for Sasuke as a shinobi at all.

He giggled out loud when he told them about the next day's assignment.  Yep.  He was going to win his bet with the older Sakura at home.  At least two of them would be going back to the academy for next year.  He would make sure of it.

"Don't be late," he warned them before disappearing on the spot.

The next day, he got up early to set out a few traps.  He put a couple lunches on top of the memorial stone, too.  That in itself was a trap.  If any of them tried to steal it all, they would be the one tied up no matter how bad the others failed.  Of course, Naruto failed.  Sakura had told him how she used to diet pretty hard as a kid, and he figured she would be the one to try to steal it.  Being the one with the least resourses of the three, Naruto was the next likely candidate.  He didn't suspect Sasuke of such treachery at all.  In the end, only Naruto saw it and attempted to stuff himself.

The lack of cooperation, the lack of self sacrifice, and the lack of focus of any kind bothered Kakashi.  No way.  No way at all could he pass these three.  Still...  Sakura told him that they would find a way to melt his heart.  He had to continue the test, the real one.  The one none of them noticed at all.  How would they handle a weakened member?  Would Naruto tell them to eat it all and try to cover his weakened state anyway?  Would they flat out refuse his requests for food if he made them?

Sasuke, the little punk, attacked him on his own again.  He stood by and watched Naruto get tied up and did nothing.  He waited for Kakashi to be distracted in supposed anger and then attacked.  Again, he was too single minded on his own success to be a problem.  Actually, Kakashi thought this time his attack was really sloppy.  Earlier, he had been good enough to get Kakashi to put away his book.  What was with this nonsense?

"You will be risking your lives on these missions," he reminded them.  "This stone is a memorial to those who died in the line of duty.  My best friend's name is carved here.  If you want to try again after lunch, stay here and eat.  Naruto doesn't get any because he tried to take it all himself.  If you feed him, you will fail.  Remember, I am the law here."

Kakashi left them to it, finding a secluded corner within ear shot to eat his own lunch quietly.  It was Sasuke who broke the rules first.  It was Sasuke who decided to find a way to plan a team strategy.  It was Sasuke who offered up food, leading Sakura into the same.

Damn.  Kakashi wished he could have done that way back when Minato was giving them this test.  No.  He had saved himself and used his team mates as tools.  This kid, though quite the loner, actually got the message.  He wasn't going to use his comrades as fodder.  He meant to work with them.

Gathering himself up, Kakashi poofed before them, startling the three.  "There is no need to continue this test after all.  You three... PASS!"

"Pass?  But you said..." the young Sakura looked so utterly confused.

"Every other team they've given me were a pack of morons.  A ninja must see underneath the underneath, not just do whatever they are told."  Kakashi looked back to the memorial stone, finding Obito's name easily.  "It's true that those who break the rules are trash.  However, those who don't take care of their comrades are lower than trash.  We will start team duties tomorrow!  Come on, let's get out of here!"

Kakashi started walking away, Sasuke following closely.  Sakura had a moment's pause to look back at Naruto.

"What about him?"

"Oh, he should still be punished for trying to leave you two hungry, don't you think?  His new punishment is getting himself untied."

.

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.

"How are things going with the team you said you'd never pass?" Sakura greeted him in the doorway when he returned home.

He didn't see her the whole day or night before.  Sandaime had her busy from early morning into late night.  When he had left this morning, it was clear her bed had been slept in, but she had already left again.

Kakashi frowned at her.  "The little brats are doing well on the D-ranks."

"Good.  Have you gotten any C-ranks yet?"

"Hmm...  I think they're ready for one, almost.  Maybe next week I will request one for them."

Sakura gave him a look he couldn't quite interpret.

"What is it?"

"When you do...  Well..." She clearly was struggling with something.  "I just want you to know that I will be here for you.  When you return, you will need to work through some things.  I'll be here to listen, to spar, whatever you need."

"You know something."

"Of course I know something," she reminded.  "I didn't know it then, but I do now."

"What is it?"

"I shouldn't tell you.  You may fail if I tell you.  Besides, it's something they need to see.  They need to see your resolve, and the consequences."

She refused to speak any more about it.  Then, days later, Naruto opened his mouth and got them stuck into a C-rank protecting some big shot bridge builder.  The man was a liar.  They continued the mission any way.  After all, Kakashi could handle a B-rank on his own.  Having the kids would not hinder him if he kept the little ducklings in a row around Tazuna as an extra layer of protection.  Sure.  He'd do it, and the kids would see just how far behind they still were.  Hopefully, they'd be happy to return to D-ranks for a while after this.

Then Momochi Zabuza showed up.  His fears were coming true.  The kids, Sasuke in particular, would be seeing him use the Sharingan no doubt.  He would have to rely on them harder if he had to use it too much.  This might cause a problem between him and Sasuke.  Maybe that is what Sakura was trying to warn him about.

His own arrogance caught up with him again that day.  If it hadn't been for the surprise of Naruto hiding behind Sasuke's attack, Kakashi might have died.  No.  He would have died later.  Zabuza would probably disable him somehow and sell him off to another nation to be interrogated, then  have the rest of his secrets determined with an autopsy.  He liked to think he wouldn't answer to any interrogation techniques.  However, he had just thought, moments ago, that not even Zabuza could capture him in the first place.  Maybe  _he_ was the one who needed to work on team work.

Damn that woman.

She could have at least told him to be suspicious of the kid, Haku.  Or, maybe she should have warned him that Naruto would begin breaking the seals around the Kyuubi this early?  Nope.  Nope.  It was the Haku kid he needed to be warned about after all.  One minute, the boys were doing their job, keeping the kid occupied while he and Zabuza fought it out.  The next minute, Kakashi was running at his opponent, chidori in hand.  The next second, no split second, his hand was through the boy's chest.

No.

Not another child!

Not only that, Zabuza was just going to cut through his student, just... right there.  Just to go after Kakashi?  No remorse.  No concern.  Not a second's regret?

Kakashi let his anger take over for a moment.  He laid into Zabuza with something other than the intent to kill.  No.  He wanted this monster, this demon bastard, to feel pain.  He regained his mind quickly, though.  First, he had to take away the best tools Zabuza had left, his arms.  Then an ambush was sprung.  Then Naruto opened his damn mouth again.  Finally, Zabuza showed emotion.  Kakashi couldn't hate him as much any more.

He was still upset with Sakura.  Not taking it out on the younger Sakura was difficult.  Not alerting her to anything about her older self was just as hard.  He wanted to sit her down and make her memorize this mission and tell it back to him when she was older.  She'd never do it, he'd bet.

After all, if he hadn't done that...  If he hadn't killed Haku the way he'd killed Rin, things would be quite different, wouldn't they?

.

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.

She wasn't there when he got home.  That was good, since he really needed a shower.  And a nap.  Using the Sharingan twice so close together, then the travel home, left him extremely sore and exhausted.

He heard her come in when he was in the shower.  No more time to soak and relax weary, cramped muscles, he washed up and met her in the hall.

"How did it go?"

She really had to ask?

"Sorry.  Bad question.  How are you holding up?" Sakura asked instead.

"Like hell.  But you already knew that would be the case.  Didn't you?" Kakashi turned on her.  "Why didn't you tell me?  You knew about Rin."

"I tried to warn you that this one would hurt."

"You could have told me something.  Anything."

"No.  It will come back to you later.  It was needed."

"I thought you wanted to change things."

"Not the things that will win the Fourth War.  I know that can't be changed.  We  _have_ to win that."

"How much more is it going to cost?"

"A lot.  From you?  A lot more than most."

Kakashi hung his head.  "I hate it when Jiraiya and Sensei do this to me.  I never thought you would."

"I never thought I would, either," she admitted.  "But...  I think I get it now.  The things I came back to change aren't happening yet."


	12. Chapter 12

Sakura watched as Kakashi's mood slowly stabilized again over the following weeks as the team went back to standard D-rank missions.  His nightmares calmed again.  Eventually, he chose to request another C-rank.  This time, they would be staying in Fire Country.

It was while they were away that she overheard the news.  The Chunin Exams would be starting in a couple weeks.  Now it was her turn to have anxiety bearing down.  She had grown fond of the Sandaime again.  Knowing that his death was just around the corner ate her up.  She had to decide whether or not to interfere.  She could do it.  She could end Orochimaru.  Tsunade was the only one who could do that before, and Orochimaru would be sure to avoid her if she were anywhere near.  He didn't know about Sakura, though.  She could slip into his presence under the guise of her current position as an aid to the Hokage, just there to see if she could make the Kazekage's stay any more comfortable.

But...  Wasn't it this event that sent her to Tsunade in the first place?  Wasn't it this event that landed Naruto under Jiraiya's wing?

Wasn't it this event that allowed Sasuke to fall farther into darkness?

Pros and cons of her potential actions circled in her head, around and around.  When Kakashi returned home, he found her shaking, knife in one hand, hovering over a carrot she couldn't even seem to start chopping.

"I'm home," he announced, voice falling off to a whisper.  He stood still, surveying the room and then her again.  "Did I miss something?"

Sakura just sat on her ass right there, still clutching the kitchen knife tightly.

Kakashi dropped his bag and ran to her.  Was there a wound on her front?  Was she caught in a strong genjutsu?  He checked with the Sharingan quickly.  No.  Not genjutsu.  His natural eye saw no evidence of a physical wound.  "Sakura, talk to me."

"I..."  Sakura choked, throat tight.  "I don't know what to do.  How do I save him?  How do I save either of them?  Any of them?  Kakashi, what do I do?"

"Okay, hold on.  You're okay."  Kakashi pried the knife from her grip.  Well, he tried to.  "Can I have this please?"

"What?" Sakura looked at her hand as if the object she clung to were suddenly new.  Finally, she let go.

He put it on the counter near the wall before sitting back down beside her, back to the cabinets.  He wasn't sure if she was ready to be touched yet.  Most women, he had heard, needed to be held in times like these.  This woman, however, was a blooded kunoichi.  He couldn't take the risk.

"You need to tell me this time," he intoned.  "What is going to happen?"

Sakura took a couple deep breaths, forcing herself to look him in the eye.  "The Chunin Exams are coming up.  Sandaime-sama is going to be killed.  Sasuke is...  It will be bad, Kakashi.  They won't listen to me and you.  None of them."

"Whoa, slow down there!" Kakashi took the chance and touched her shoulder lightly.  "Take it slow.  Prioritize.  What do all of these things have in common?"

"Orochimaru."

"Oh."  Kakashi looked down at the floor, letting that one absorb.  "Shit."

"He's here for Sasuke-kun.  He will do more."

"How much more?"

"Sandaime-sama has to be protected at all costs!" Sakura gripped the hand he held on her shoulder.  "Kakashi, you have to stay close to him.  I need to try and hide with the ANBU or something..."

"Sakura, don't worry about that."  Kakashi gave her hand a gentle squeeze.  "He may be old, but he can handle himself.  Besides, have you ever known a Hokage to have anything less than two teams of ANBU with them at all times?  Besides, Asuma, Kurenai, Gai, and myself will already be with him most of the time.  You will, too.  You won't have to disguise yourself any further.  You will be in the next room, fielding his normal work load and on standby in case of medical emergencies the normal medics can't handle.  Right?"

"I...  I will suggest that to Sandaime-sama first thing in the morning then," Sakura nodded.  "He hasn't actually approached me about this at all yet."

"And you mentioned Sasuke.  Will he pull through without our interference?"

"He..." Sakura thought back through faded memories.  "He will be changed.  He will be weakened.  Young Sakura will have to watch over him and Naruto both.  Others will save us in the end.  But... that's not the end of it.  He gets worse.  He will eventually get out of control.  You need to brush up on your sealing skills fast."

"Then I will start on that tomorrow, since I have the day off." Kakashi dropped his mask for her now, allowing her to see a small, yet false, smile.  "See.  We can do this."

"No, we can't.  We can't save them.  If we save them, I never learn from Tsunade-sama.  Naruto doesn't go with Jiraiya-sama.  You don't... um...  well, there are things for you to work on, too."

"Will you help me work on them?"

"Of course I will.  Who else is going to do it?"

"Alright then.  Let's focus on getting you three through these tests, then on what I need to learn.  Let the rest happen as it will happen."

.

................................................................................

.

Sandaime was dead.  There was no Godaime in charge yet.  And here he was, keeping Naruto and Sasuke from killing Sakura on the top of a roof.  What the hell?  What the ever loving fuck were these kids thinking?  Why couldn't they understand that they were better together?

Once again, Sakura was home when he arrived.

Her days were cut short since her usefulness was seen as less to the council in general.  It didn't matter.  Just two or three days ago, he was keeping Sasuke and Naruto from destroying not only themselves, but Sakura and half the village, too.  Today, he had faced down an old team mate, Itachi, and had lost Sasuke completely.  Those who went after him returned battered and empty handed.

Sakura cought him as he collapsed to the floor.

Her hands were here and there, helping him out of his vest and boots.  She had a warm, we cloth at the ready, wiping blood from his face and neck first.  He wasn't sure when his gloves and socks came off.  He just knew that she had practically carried him to the bathroom and was now peeling his sweat and blood soaked shirt off.  She was working on his belt when he finally caught her hands.

"Kakashi, you need to get cleaned up."  Sakura said gently, becoming still.

"It was Itachi."  That was all he could voice at the moment.

"I know.  I'm sorry.  This is why you need to get stronger.  More people just as strong as him are coming.  Stronger, even.  It's time for you to grow again.  Right now, you need to get cleaned up and get some rest.  Okay?"

"Okay."

"I am going to get you in the shower now.  After you're undressed."

"Shower with me?"  His words were almost a cry.  He missed Itachi.  He never felt it was right, what happened.  Itachi loved too many of them to have been responsible for their deaths.  Itachi had been a reliable partner in ANBU.  "Don't leave."

"Okay.  Just give me a minute."

Sakura stripped herself quickly, then returned to helping him with his pants and underwear.  She had the water running before pulling him into the shower.  He leaned on her for a while, just letting the water run over his back, easing bruises and sore muscles.  Sakura brought out the menthol body wash, lathering him up and letting the ingredients do their work to get him moving again.  It did it's job, allowing him to help her wash her hair.

She couldn't say she was surprised by the erection he was forming.  It was the first time in weeks that they had been so close.  Actually, it was the first time since before the Chunin Exams that they had been undressed in one another's presence.  He needed the contact more than wanted it.  So did she, to be honest.

Still, he pulled himself together enough to step out of the shower and dry off.  She followed suit, only to be scooped up and carried to his bed.  Not a word was spoken between them.  She took in his every cue, allowing him to kiss her throat, her chest, suck on a nipple.  His hands were everywhere.  She tried holding on, but he grabbed her wrists and held them above her head.  Yes, she could have pushed him off, but the things he was doing felt too good.  This was what he needed from her now.

He was inside of her faster than she was ready for, but it didn't matter.  His presence inside of her was all it took.  His urgency was exciting to her.  His heavy breathing, the all consuming kisses, brought her high close, but not close enough for when he finished.  She was right on the edge when he pulled out of her.

Kakashi didn't allow her to stay unfulfilled, though.  He gave Sakura his hand to grind against, a thumb playing at just the right spot just hard enough.

He kept kissing her and holding her close until they fell asleep.


	13. Chapter 13

Two months passed.  Now Sasuke had left to find Orochimaru.  Naruto was pretty well stolen from the hospital by Jiraiya.  Sakura had went and dumped her sensei and began training under the Godaime Hokage.

This was the time Sakura had told him he would need.  How was he supposed to use any of it for training?  Tsunade-sama had him back on a string of S-class missions, and she seemed to know nothing about a woman named Namikaze Sakura.  Well, not much more than nothing.

"I know the woman gave Sensei a lot of help with odd jobs and monitored his medical condition well, but she's kept clear of me.  Actually, last week she asked to reduce her duties and not to be sent on missions outside of the village."

Kakashi looked at Tsunade with confusion.  "She is fully capable of accompanying me on these missions.  Tenzou can have separate missions so that we can all do more work."

"Her reasons are of a very private nature at the moment, I'm afraid.  I cannot tell you the reason.  Ask her yourself.  For now, you will continue to work with the one you call Tenzou."

A private nature?  Perhaps she was just getting herself ready to help him train.  She had told him he would need to work more with the Sharingan, that he needed to develop the Mangekyo.  Yes.  That had to be it.  She needed time to regain her speed and stamina so that she could be a good teaching aid.  That would, also, explain why she was often a bit run down when he saw her at home.  Maybe he should talk to her, convince her to back off a bit.  She needed time to rebuild and was trying to do it too fast.

Today, he would bring her dango as a thanks for the hard work she must be doing.  His new mission with Tenzou didn't start for another sixteen hours.  He would make time to show her some appreciation before leaving again for...  Well, he wasn't sure how long this mission would take.  Three days of travel one direction and one day minimum to find and assassinate the target made for a long week.

Happy with the idea, he bought the sweet treat and walked on home.  She was in the shower when he got there.  Odd.  It seemed like she was taking three or more showers a day lately.  Well, no matter.  He would just bring the dango into his bedroom and wait for the scent to lure her in.  The kitchen was a mess of mission reports that still needed completing anyway, and the living room was covered in dog fur since neither had been there to clean it after the last time he'd allowed the whole pack to stay the night.  It made her sneeze a lot lately.  The bedroom was the only safe place for them to spend some time together right now.

Stretched out on the pillows, he pulled down his mask when he heard the shower turn off.  All the familiar scents of home, including the undertones of the sex they'd shared now and again, filled his nose and his heart.  But, something was off.  Yes, this was his safest place.  He knew every nuance to the feel, sight, and smell of his own bed.  So what was this?  Kakashi buried his nose into the bed on his own side first.  Nothing unusual.  No.  The scent was different on her side.  It was still her scent, with just... something else added.  That wasn't a scent of a perfume or soap he had ever encountered before.  It wasn't bad, actually.  He kind of liked it.

"Oh, gods, what is that smell?"

Sakura's moan of distaste from the hall broke him out of his thoughts.

"I brought you some dango," he announced.  "I thought you loved it."

"I do, it's just... wow.  Overpowering.  I think..."

He never saw her get near the bedroom.  The bathroom door slammed shut again, and he heard the sound of dry heaving on the other side.  Okay.  Bad idea.  Why would she find this scent overpowering?  It had cooled off and was only noticeable to him from being so close.  He could smell everything else around it just fine.  What the hell was wrong with her?  He closed the container and ran it to the fridge before checking in on her.  Best to hide the offensive object first.  As a second measure, he hit the air with odor neutralizing spray all through the house.

She still wasn't done in the bathroom.

"Sakura," Kakashi spoke through the bathroom door.  "Sakura, may I come in?"

"Please no."  Her muffled voice sounded sad and pained.

"I got rid of the smell for now."

"Okay."

He let himself in slowly, not wanting to startle her in case he misunderstood her okay.  It could have been permission to enter.  It could have meant that she got the message about him masking the scent of the dango.  He found her hunched over the toilet, spit running out of her mouth, tear marks streaking from her eyes down her cheeks.  Her body had tried hard to vomit, but there was just nothing there.

Kakashi grabbed a wash cloth and wet it, helping her clean her face as he asked, "What is going on with you?  I asked for you to be my partner on missions.  Tsunade-sama said you had asked for reduced duties.  Now, the smell of dango is making you sick?  When is the last time you ate anything?  What about training me?  Are you hurting yourself to get better like you did as a kid?  You should know this isn't the way to do it.  Tsunade-sama would not approve.  I certainly don't."

She didn't answer.  Sakura actually looked scared.

"Your scent has changed, too.  Are you sick?  Is this some sort of change women go through in their twenties I wasn't aware of?"  He was going to question her about everything possible until she blurted out the answer.  It all had to be related, he was sure.  "Sakura, just tell me.  I can't help you if you don't tell me what is wrong."

Still, she evaded, "You need to focus on missions and training.  Use Tenzou.  I.  I can't help you like this."

"No, obviously not," Kakashi agreed.  "I still need to know what is going on.  Is it because of everything that's happened lately?  It sucks.  I know.  I don't know what it's like to witness it twice.  But, I believe there is something you're still not telling me.  This is more important you you than when Sandaime-sama-"

"I'm pregnant."

Sakura's sudden compliance to answer all of his questions at once was a bit of a shock.  One second, he was crouched beside her.  The next second, he was holding his head.  He had slipped that last little bit, hit his ass on the floor and rocked back into the door stopper on the wall.  Now, it was her turn to take care of him.  She muttered and cursed him under her breath as she checked the spot on his head.

"I thought it was obvious, you moron."

"How can it be obvious?  I have barely been home and you're not showing."

"Really?"  Sakura stood before him, letting her bathrobe fall.

Okay, so there were some slight differences.  Her breasts were a bit perkier, but they always did that right before her period anyway.  Her stomach didn't have quite as much definition, but that could be attributed to a lack of daily training.  But her scent.  It was subdued due to the showers, but her anxiety over throwing up had made her sweat again.  He smelled the difference more strongly.  Still, he didn't believe it.  He opened his left eye and looked her chakra flow over.  Yes.  There were two, no,  _three_ different points it balled up in.  Of course there was her forehead.  But then, what looked like one at first glance was two slightly separated points in her abdomen.

Kakashi closed Obito's eye again, looking away from her.  "I feel like an idiot now."

.

.....................................................................................................................................................................................................................

.

Well, the good part about her being pregnant, they soon figured out, was that her tastes in food started to match his a bit more.  Once she could start keeping it down for most of the day (there were still some afternoons, even three more months in where she got nausea), however, sleeping started to get harder.  Her posture changed.  Her back ached, and her feet swelled.  The bigger the babies got, the more easily she ran out of breath.  Not to mention the kicking and punching and somersaults they seemed to be doing at all times of the day and night.  She commented that she felt like all her organs would be permanently bruised.

"Maa, Kakashi-senpai," Tenzou commented one evening over dinner.  "Sakura-san looks way bigger than she did before.  I thought it was supposed to take longer to reach that size?"

Kakashi put his hand on Sakura's shoulder to hold her down in her chair.  He knew her anger about the comment before it was even finished.  "Sakura is carrying twins, Kohai.  It is normal to be bigger faster, or so I have been assured.  It, also, means she will have them sooner."

"Huh," Tenzou leaned back in his seat.  "Kakashi-senpai... a father.  I never thought it would happen.  Certainly not this soon.  Sakura-san, if he mistreats you or them, feel free to come to me.  I know how much of an ass this one can be."

Kakashi smacked him hard.  "That's not nice."

"This from the man who said Kakashi was too soft on us," Sakura giggled.

The guys became awkward.  What the hell was she talking about?

"Care to clarify that statement?" Kakashi stared at her hard.

"Oh shit," She hung her head.  She had not meant to let that slip.

"It's alright," Tenzou cut the tension.  "A little bird clued me in.  I didn't believe it."

"What?"

"I knew someone related to you, a Haruno.  That's why I'm here tonight.  I was hoping you had seen her?  Her name was Yoriko."

Kakashi and Sakura shared a look.  Kakashi had insisted they name the boy Minato.  Sakura demanded the boy be Yoriko which was a name considered for a baby she knew of in the future, but not used.

"So, you do know her!" Tenzou smiled.  "Please, tell her that I didn't understand.  The whole time travel thing is hard to believe.  Then, things happened that she told me about.  She said I should ask you two about it.  Looking at what you can do with that eye, Kakashi-senpai, I'm inclined to believe she knew what she was talking about."

"Uhhhmmm..." Sakura grabbed Kakashi, used him to haul herself up, then drug him to the bathroom.  She had the sink and the tub faucets running hard before she actually spoke.  "What the hell?"

"I don't know." Kakashi assured.  "Could be someone else?"

"Doubtful if he was directed to talk to us about it."

"We can't tell him anything."

"How much does he already know?"

"I don't know."

"Could it be a test?  Has he already seen the younger me?  I don't remember coming into contact with him until after Naruto comes back.  And he is coming back, Kakashi.  I promise Jiraiya didn't steal him forever."

"This isn't about Naruto.  This is about Yoriko."

"Kakashi, you know as much about her as I do except for the full extent of her squirming!"

Kakashi wrapped his arms around her as much as he could, putting his nose in her hair.  He knew already that she would not be with him for much longer, could leave at any moment.  He would not be raising his children and needed to savor this time he had left.  This was just a scare.  That's all they could allow it to be.  Just a short term scare.

Tenzou was knocking on the door.  "You have a visitor."

Sighing, Kakashi pulled away.  "We will deal with this later.  Come on.  Brave face time."

"Kakashi," Sakura reached out and held his hand as he reached to turn off the tub faucet.  "Yamato-taichou is right.  You really are a big softy."

"Only for you," he smirked at her, reclaiming his hand to pull up his mask and turn off the water.

Tenzou was waiting for them in the hall, looking a bit uncomfortable.

"What is it?" Kakashi asked, blocking Sakura's path.

"It's...  I would swear that it's the Yondaime.  It can't be."

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Changed Yuuko to Yoriko. I have reasons.


	14. Chapter 14

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> quick note. I changed Yuuko to Yoriko.

Young.

That's how Kakashi would describe Minato at the moment.  He was younger than when he took Kakashi on as a student.  And he looked excited.  They had to be careful here.  Sure, he would know about Sakura, but would he know about Kakashi?  Hell, neither of them were sure how Minato even learned anything about Kakashi other than as his young Hatake apprentice.

"Um, hi, so uh..."

Yeah.  He was what, fifteen or sixteen?

"Tenzo," Kakashi looked over his shoulder, "I think it's time you left for the evening.  Keep all of this to yourself, please."

"Like anybody would believe me," the other man muttered, keeping a good bit of distance between him and the blond as he went for his shoes and got the hell out.

Kakashi refocused on his very young mentor.  "Why are you here?"

"Jira-nii-san told me there was a medic here that could help me out," Minato blurted out.  "I wasn't expecting  _her_."

At the mention of a medic, Sakura stepped forward, looking him over at a small distance.  There was no obvious sign of any major injury, but it was clear he had lots of small ones.  Some were a bit deep, but nothing too bad overall.  "What is wrong?"

"Uh, so, this girl I like got kidnapped.  I went after her by myself."

Sakura snorted.  Yeah, that sounded about right.  She knew several guys who did that sort of thing.  Some girls, too.  What was it with teenagers and rushing headlong, alone, towards danger?  "Come on.  I can help you.  Did you at least get the girl?"

"Of course I did!  Mamma didn't raise a slouch!"

"Just a fool," Sakura sighed.  "Come on.  To the bathroom."

Minato followed eagerly, and a bit gingerly.  Yeah, some of those cuts and bruises were quite sore already.  He kept his distance from Kakashi, though.  Kakashi paid attention.  Minato seemed nervous about him.

There was a time when Minato had told him of the night Kushina had gone missing.  Minato had been an idiot and went after her alone.  The pair got out and started a rivalry for a few years, trying to be better than one another, both claiming to be the next Hokage.  Of course, politics beyond their understanding had a hand in things, meaning that Kushina wasn't allowed to reach her dream even if she had ever been capable.

So, why was it that the foolhardy young man before him could rush into unknown territory to fight unknown enemies looked so scared of his own kin?  Minato knew from the time he was very young that he was half Hatake.  Kakashi should have been a welcome sight.

For now, he'd just let the boy keep his distance.  Instead, Kakashi picked up a phone and made a few calls to the local bars and brothels.  Maybe Jiraiya could explain this one better?

.

..........................................................................................................................

.

Kakashi had found Jiraiya.  He learned the answers, and it bothered him.  Supposedly, Kakashi looked a lot like Jiraiya's uncle.  That wasn't all the older man had to say on the subject.  It was bad.  He had to warn Sakura.  Running home, he didn't care about the fact that there were clearly four ANBU following him at break neck speeds across the roof tops.  Perhaps they were just going in the same direction.  The tops and sides of buildings were a common place for shinobi to travel at any time of day or night when they were in a hurry.

He dropped down to street level a few houses before his own and came to a quick halt.  His front door was wide open.  Young Minato was standing in the doorway looking even more shaken up than Kakashi had seen him pretty much ever.  There was no sign of anything else going on.

The ANBU had dropped near by.

Kakashi didn't like this.  It was clear they weren't just going in the same general direction anymore.  No.  They were traveling  _with_ him.

He was going home whether or not they thought they were letting him.  Kakashi started walking.  They walked with him.  Ahead of him.  They closed off his path.  Minato disappeared on the spot.

"What are you doing?" Kakashi demanded, keeping his slouch.

"Just stay here for a little while longer," the tallest ANBU said.  The man's voice was neither demanding nor pleading.  He sounded... gentle?  "It's going to be okay in the end.  I promise."

"Forgive me for not trusting you," Kakashi stepped forward a bit more.  "Get out of my way."

"I said I promise.  I don't go back on my word.  It's my nindo." The tallest ANBU repeated.

As a matter of fact, it seemed that the other three were actually small enough to all be female, or all be kids still.  Then, there were those words.  Those words sounded quite familiar.  The voice wasn't, though.  It was too deep, too old.  Nobody had the right to steal Naruto's words like that.  Kakashi stepped right up to the ass hat who spoke them.

"Get out of my way." Kakashi demanded.

"No."

Kakashi made to side step him, pushing the boundary a bit.  The man put a hand on his chest and held him back.  Kakashi contemplated that hand.  This ANBU wore no glove on it.  Instead, it was wrapped in bandages that disappeared up the sleeve.  He looked the guy over some more.  Nothing else was showing.  Kakashi sighed again, making a move to free his right eye.  The guy didn't move, but one of the smaller ones did.  This one's movements gave them away as female as they gracefully stepped between them, allowing Kakashi full view of her eyes.  Twin Sharingan faced him down.

 _That_ made Kakashi take a couple steps back.  There were only two known Uchiha still alive.  Both of them were male, and neither had Sharingan that looked quite like hers.

"We were ordered to keep you here for a while longer, Kakashi-sama," the female spoke.  That was definitely not the voice of a full grown woman.  And nobody called him sama.  Senpai and Sensei, yes, but not sama.

"By whom?" Kakashi demanded, unsure if he was ready to test himself against another dojutsu user like this.  Here in town, that could be disastrous.

"By you."

There was some commotion coming from his open door.  He could see Sakura.  She was in pain.  Then, just like Minato before her, she was gone.

.

...............................................................................

.

Sakura didn't know what she'd done to set off the boy.  They talked about the weather.  They talked about his female rival in school.  They talked about Sandaime.  They talked about what time of year it was, and things like that.

She felt some aching in her back.  It was normal.  It wasn't normal that it was rhythmic.  Then again, she had been feeling a little off for the last day or two.  The babies had been squirming more.  She had been more sore.

Damn, but these felt like the worst period cramps she'd ever had.

Minato ran to the door when she cringed through one of them.  He looked torn between going for help or staying with her.

Another wave of pain brought her to her knees.

These weren't normal aches and pains anymore.  Not if the wet feeling at her thighs gave any indication.

Shit.

Not now.  Not now.  Not now!

She didn't know where Kakashi had gone.  The kid couldn't be trusted to haul her ass to the hospital.  He shouldn't be seen at all.  She had a well developed persona here.  There were too many people still around that might recognize him, or even mistake him for Naruto.  The kid might slip up and reveal her.

What the hell did it matter?  She was in labor!

Looking down the hall, she caught the sad look on the boy's face as he flickered out of existence.  Little brat could do it at will!

And that's when she felt it.  That red chakra was welling up inside her again.  This time, it wasn't from her, exactly.  No.  But it was still enveloping her whole being.  She had to get to the door.  She had to do something...


	15. Chapter 15

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Okay, so, Yuuko was changed to Yoriko.

Hatake Jin was always more interested in seeing how much of the Haruno profits he could siphon back to his brother, Jiro.  While it was true that the Haruno clan had more people, the Hatake had more land and horses to tend.  The two ends of the valley were vastly different from one another.

On the North end, the land was steeper, more rocky, and each home was marked with a large apple or other fruit bearing tree orchard.  This was the land of the Haruno.  Their produce was sent to many villages under many daimyo's control.  They had to hire help every year to make their harvest and delivery.

The South end, however, was more rolling hills.  The river widened out and flooded the area twice a year, making a permanent home a risk.  Every so often, the river decided to change direction.  This was great for planting rice and other things like turnips.  That meant more livestock to plow.  It meant more livestock lost to flash flooding.

In generations past, the Hatake on the South end would aid in the delivery of the Haruno goods to supplement the money lost on buying new horses or building materials.  They worked different methods of farming, but both clans benefited mutually.  The wealth was shared.  The only restriction was that the two clans were not allowed to join their bloodlines.  It was done out of a need for balance.

Both clans had several gifted individuals among them that could use chakra.  Most of them were trained at home to become shinobi.  Those individuals would be the first on hand in case of anyone trying to sabotage the harvests.  They, also, assisted the daimyo in case the army was not enough to deal with a threat by another daimyo.  However, among those individuals, there were a hand full that could do something very, very special.  They could travel through time.

The Hatake men could travel forward.  The Haruno women could travel back.  No Hatake woman or Haruno man ever seemed to be gifted with this ability.  It didn't matter if one's parent was able or not, it just happened that way.  So the Daimyo used the Hatake men to look ahead in time for possible threats, and then Haruno women to go back in time and neutralize the issue.  Peace and prosperity were abundant.  However, if the two gifts were to combine, that individual could potentially do more harm than good.  So, they were mutually banned from intermarrying.

At first, this was readily agreed on.  Of course, such agreements don't last long.  Attempts were made.  A wall was built between the North and South ends by the daimyo's regular army.  Both sides grew spiteful of one another, both being without the other's relied upon resources.  In the last few years, the Hatake paid a heavy price for that.

The daimyo had ordered all Haruno and Hatake capable of time travel to be brought to him directly.  They were never seen again even if letters, heavily censored, did come.  The rains poured so hard one year, that even the Haruno were heavily affected.  Downstream, what was thought to be a safe settlement for most of the Hatake was wiped away.

No aid was allowed to the Hatake.  The Haruno recovered fast.

It was then that they were given news that there was a new, young daimyo.  The old one had died months before, and no one had told any of them.

And now they were allowing one Hatake man to marry one Haruno woman.  The new daimyo wanted to know what would happen.  He chose the brother of the Hatake clan's leader to marry the daughter of the Haruno clan leader.  Fate was good to them at first.  They were of like mind in redistributing wealth and resources as much as they could.  They spent Spring and Summer with the Haruno clan, Autumn and Winter with the Hatake.  In their second year, Haruno Meiko was pregnant with twins.

When the time came, she died, taking the children with her.  The daimyo would not be pleased.

Yet, a blessing fell into his home anyway.

Hatake Jin was surprised, along with everyone else present, when he heard the yelling of another woman in his home.

This woman looked very much like his wife.  She was in labor.  She produced twins.  She lived.  The children lived.

She admitted they had a Hatake father, and that she was a Haruno.

Jin smiled.  The daimyo would not make good on his threat to further sanction both clans if no children were produced within three years.

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Hatake Jiraiya hated his father with a passion.  He hated that his father showed no empathy at all.  The man didn't shed one tear when the floods wiped out their home, taking his mother with it.  Instead, Jiro put more work on his sons.  Jiraiya and his baby brother, Kazuo, rebuilt the house themselves, loosing time in training to use their chakra.  Their cousins, Haruno Yoriko and Minato, however, were being pushed to learn as much as they could.  They never had to tend to the fields or the orchards.

Just study study study.

They seemed equally miserable for it.  Kazuo and Jiraiya were their only friends.  Heck, they were the only ones allowed to play with the Haruno kids at all.  So, when they were able, the four got together and helped teach one another everything.  Yoriko and Minato would teach Kazuo and Jiraiya about being shinobi.  Kazuo and Jiraiya would teach them about farming.

And then, they started disappearing together, the four of them.  They would go on adventures to the future without their parents' knowledge.  They knew if their secret got out, things could go bad for them all.  But it was too much fun!  Things like phones, ice cream, a big arena where people would spar during tests for everyone to see, books instead of scrolls, all sorts of new and exciting things were generations away, and they wanted them for themselves.

There were downsides, of course.  Sometimes, they would end up witnessing a battle that wasn't in the arena or a training field somewhere.  No.  One time, they saw the whole, huge village be flattened into a crater.  They saw the dead come back to life.  They saw the North end of the Valley be carved out into the figures of two important people, and a mountain side a bit farther to the East be reshaped into several faces, one of which was the same as a figure on the North end.

And then, it happened.

They saw her.

Haruno Meiko was there, walking down the street, arm-in-arm with two different people.  One the one side, she tugged a blond man around who was blushing.  On the other, she had a black haired man looking for all the world like this would be the death of him.  There was no denying who she was.  So why did they call her Sakura?

Minato asked his mother about that when they returned to their own time.

He asked at a very bad time.  One of the daimyo's men was there.

There was a fight.  He, his sister, and their cousins were taken away.

They knew what that meant.  Everyone did.

The person put seals on them, keeping them from using their chakra.  Keeping them from skipping forward or backward in time again.  They were prisoners.  Meiko fought.  Of their parents, she was the only actual shinobi.  But, she was drained from helping people earlier.  Lots of the Hatake were sick and dying from disease.  She was their best help.  She couldn't help the children.

Two days out and somehow the Hatake and the Haruno had sent people after them.  There was a fight.  Minato was knocked down.  His head hurt so bad he puked.  A body fell on top of him, and he figured the best thing to do would be to lie still until the commotion died down.

The choice kept him alive, but, also, left behind.

When he finally pushed off the person above, he saw the remains of many.  And the person who was on top of him?  It was Yoriko.

"Yoriko-chan," he shook her arm, "wake up. We have to find-"

He stopped when he realized that not only was she not breathing, she was cold and stiff. Shuffling out from under her body, he got the full picture. He cried for hours, holding her body close despite the smell, the blood, and brain now staining his cloths and skin. This was his sister, his twin whom he had never done anything without. He always knew what she was going to say, what she was going to do, the moment she chose to say or do it. She anticipated his every move, his every thought. If one of them was hurt, the other knew. If one of them was happy beyond explanation, the other knew. It didn't matter the distance.

How could he live without her? He needed her to share every experience with. It was obvious neither side of his remaining family wanted him. He had failed them so greatly they killed Yoriko and left him for dead, too.

It was hard trying to decide what to do now. He knew he would have to conceal his identity as a Haruno. He couldn't claim to be Hatake either. Both names invited trouble now, it seemed. He thought for a while about the other names related to his family, he wanted to use something he'd answer to quickly when called. He remembered that his mother's sister had married a man whose brother had married a Namikaze. Their children grew up in the same part of the farm lands and even went to the school the Daimyo had made. He was familiar with that name, and that name he would take.

The next thing was finding a place to live. He couldn't go home, and he couldn't stay within the Daimyo's grasp, or that of any enemy of his clans. He would be recognized quickly. Sitting by his little cooking fire, he felt so alone. No one had stayed with him. His mother would never chide him for not eating enough again. His father would never again straighten his armor. His cousins Jiraiya and Kazuo would never again race with him between farms with rice sacks on their backs to see who had the best endurance, speed, and strength.

He would have none of that wherever he went, if he ever made it anywhere at all.

That's when it hit him.

There were six faces on the mountain the second time he and Yoriko visited the place called Konohagakure No Sato. They had gone farther into the future that time and found out that not only had this place been experiencing a post-war baby-boom among ninja and civilian alike, but there was a Hatake in charge of the ninja, and it was his face up on that wall of stone. Two faces to his left was another familiar face. This one looked much like his mother's face, much like Yoriko's, only male and adult. That would be his face. He promised it would be his face.

Mind made up, he gathered up his things, intent on expending enough energy to bring everything he had with him. There would be no way to make it as far as he had the first or second time with all of these things, but he didn't have to. He just had to make it far enough. Closing his eyes, Minato tapped into the well of white chakra inside, beneath the blue. It was the hardest to grasp, but, once grasped, flowed freely, silky, hot.

Minato opened his eyes, watching the scenery change around him, trees grow old, rot, new ones sprout up, grow old, rot. Erosion from wind and rain wore down the rocks slightly, and people passed by on a new path a few yards away. A shock of pale silvery white hair caught Minato's attention, and he stopped the transfer. This young man looked similar to his father, but more like his uncle. This man was most certainly a Hatake descendant, and not far behind him came another a couple years younger, one more closely resembling the sixth face on the mountain.

He had made it!

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Sakura freed another Haruno trapped under part of a building that had come down in the large mudslide.  She wished Jin had told her that there was a party going after the kids already.  She would have been there beside them.  Then again, the regular army were not shinobi, and a few of the shinobi had gone.  And, besides, who else could help these people here and now?

Was she worried?  Of course!  But, one thing at a time.  Her kids were strong.  They would survive a simple kidnapping.  These people here would not survive without her help.  Not at all.

It had been two days now, and she was sure nobody else that was trapped would be coming out alive.  All she could hope for was the safe return of her children and their friends.

Three of the party that went after them returned.

Kazuo was dead.  Yoriko was dead.  Minato and Jiraiya were missing.

These three barely survived themselves.

Things had changed.  There was more that the daimyo wasn't revealing to them.

The good news?  Well, she knew Jiraiya and Minato had made it out.  She had to make the bastards pay for killing her daughter and Kazuo.  The gods knew Jin and Jiro wouldn't.  They were too big of pussies to truely stand up to this.


	16. Chapter 16

Sakura went with the next group to be rounded up by the Daimyo.  She freely admitted her deceit, told them who she really was and when she really was born.  She told them how she had managed to get here by accident.  Everything.  Of course the Daimyo's men would take interest and extreme measures to secure her for him.  She had lots more valuable information than most.

She just didn't tell them anything about her training with Tsunade and the fruits that training had born.  No.  She needed to play her part now.  If her son was still captive, she would find him and break him out.  She would free him, and then have him take her back to her own time, or close to it.  She would raise him in peace, peace she hoped would still be there.  Naruto would probably still exist in some form.  There had to be something in the fates that would make it so without Minato's presence.  Kushina would still be the Jinchuuriki before her son.

Maybe he wouldn't exist.  Maybe Kushina would become Hokage after all.  Maybe Jiraiya would take on Kakashi's genin team and not Pein's.  Maybe Akatsuki wouldn't be as strong.  Maybe Orochimaru and Itachi would work together by working against one another and bring down the organization from within.  Maybe Sasuke wouldn't grow up hating his brother.  Maybe Obito would...

There were a lot of maybes.

But, that was the point, wasn't it?

Sakura had come back in time to change things.  Perhaps removing Minato from being the Fourth Hokage was her mission after all.

Doing so would create many, many changes that could be for the better or the worse.  Right now, that didn't matter to her one bit.  Right now, her son needed rescuing.  He was just a kid that, in this age, should have been focused on learning his family's trade in farming.  Being a shinobi was secondary.

Everyone learned to defend their home here and now, whether or not they could use chakra.  Only those with control over chakra were singled out and trained harder.  They were the elite fighters, but even the elite had to pull their share on the farms.  The newest Daimyo had upset that balance since he'd taken the position.  Sakura would teach him not to bite the hand that feeds (pun  _intended_ in this case).

But her son wasn't here at the palace.  Jiraiya wasn't here either.

She heard the report.  The two were missing.  Not a trace.

Sakura was both relieved and fearful at that.  Where had they escaped to?  When?  Why hadn't they come home like normal kids to hide behind their parents?  Did they learn about the future of this place?  The nearly ancient history Sakura learned in school?  Did they know that soon, the fighting between the Uchiha and the Senju would wreak havoc on their valley and change it's physical shape into something currently unrecognizable?  A place where the Hatake and Haruno would nearly become extinct when they took opposing sides in the fight?

It would be another seven generations before that would happen.  The two clans' numbers would be much higher than they were now, recovering from the devastation of economics and weather patterns currently happening.  Nobody in this day and age knew that the weather issues were due to the nine tailed beasts' growth in both power and anger.  All of them angry with humanity.  In five more generations, not only would they be known, but they would be tracked down and sealed away inside different people, used as tools the very way the Daimyo used the Hatake and Haruno gifted were now.

"You say you are unable to use your gift at will," the aid of the Daimyo, Nikkin, who dealt with the time traveling affairs sighed.  "Very well.  You would not be the first that we have brought that needed refined training before being of service."

Sakura looked at him across the table to which she was chained.  If she wanted, these restraints would buckle, the seals placed on her would break, and she could kill him, escape, free others.  But she needed this.  She needed to learn to control her power.  She needed to go find the kids.

"There is more that we would have you learn," Nikkin continued.  "It is taught by my cousin Nikko."

"And, what is that?" she spoke for the first time after five hours of either being told what to do or being spoken about like an object.

"The power of life itself," he answered.

"I am already a healer."

"I didn't say the power to heal.  I mean life, of all kinds.  Since you already know healing, you are a good candidate to learn his techniques of life force transferal.  Even the dead of several hours, even days, can be restored.  My lord has learned of this secret and wishes to use it in the future to extend his own life, his own rule.  Since Nikko is old and loosing the ability, but is still able to teach, you will be among his few students.  You will be required to learn this for future use on the Daimyo.  Do you understand?"

Sakura thought of the implications.  Was this the beginning of Edo Tensei?  Was it something else that would die out here?  It could be useful.

"I understand."

"And, Haruno-san," Nikkin stood and came close to whisper.  What he said next was not for the guards' ears at all.  "Do my cousin and your other teachers proud.  Hatake Jiraiya's and Kazuo's mother was my sister.  Nikko asked to bring her back to life, but the Daimyo refused to give him leave.  It is too late now for him to do it.  If Kazuo is still alive, he should have his mother.  Don't you think?  Don't you think every Hatake and Haruno deserve their families?"

Sakura understood the request for what it really was.  Yes.  Yes, she would repay them with their families.  She would repay this man for keeping the Daimyo from ordering more executions, hers included, as punishment for the loss of her children.  She would break his servants free.

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Months.  She had spent months just learning to control her own travel through time, guided by another Haruno woman's hand.  Not once was she anywhere near Nikkin again.  Not once had she seen Nikko.  No.  The Daimyo ordered her to learn this first.  There were others already training under Nikko who showed promise, and this was here weak point, not theirs.

Every room she was in was warded to prevent any time travel at all except when she was with Haruno Yuzu.  Then, Yuzu was forced to bring along another person each time they worked on their kekke genkai, one of the Daimyo's chosen guards that would kill them on the spot if they deviated in the slightest from the lesson plan or failed to return to the proper time frame.

Sixteen months passed before she was deemed fully capable.  Sakura sure didn't feel like it.  A few years was her maximum capacity.  Nothing like the first time she had traveled which was over a decade.  Despite the fact that she was to be transferred to Nikko's teaching, she would not be allowed to practice any more on time travel.  Her rooms within Nikko's temple school would be warded.  She would not be allowed out of them without an appointed guard whom would always have physical skin to skin contact with her, keeping him with her if she decided to go through time.

Frustrated, she didn't protest.  She needed to do this.  She had promised Nikkin.

Nikko started off by testing her abilities in healing.  He didn't bring her much at first.  A strained elbow.  A broken toe.  He moved on to lacerations and punctures.  He moved on to crushed bones and damaged organs.  He brought her terminal illnesses last.  Sakura didn't ask where the patients came from or how they were injured or sick in the first place.  They were at a Buddist temple, a common place at the time to bring the injured when a doctor was not in town already.  Monks always had doctors or healers of some level on hand.  Even animals of high importance, usually working animals or royal pets, were often brought.

So, it was no surprise when Nikko brought her a dead hunting dog one day.

Of course she failed to help it.  It had been dead for hours, the cause being old age.  It's heart had given out.

Next, without removing the dog, Nikko had a couple helpers bring in a yearling plumb tree.  This confused her at first, but then Nikko demonstrated his gift.  With his left hand on the tree and his right on the dog, Sakura watched the tree wither away into ash.  The dog began breathing again, opening it's eyes the moment the roots of the tree became nothing.

"This is the power of life, Haruno-san," Nikko explained, petting the dog happily.  "You have been taught to use your own life force to heal damage.  I will now teach you to use the life force of other beings not only to heal damage, but reverse death.  As long as the spirit of the dead animal or person has not passed on to the next life, you will be able to restore the spirit to the old body and heal the body again.  This dog died while its master was away.  He was always happy to greet his master and perform his duty of hunting.  Because he had not seen his master the day he died, his soul remained behind.  He was not ready to die.  Do you understand?"

"My husband," Sakura thought back many years, back to when Kakashi spoke to his team one single time about what he had seen in death when Pein attacked Konoha, "was brought back once.  My real husband.  He met his father in the space between lives.  His father was then able to move on after they spoke.  He was not.  Others that should have been brought back were not, and the person who restored them said it was because their souls had already moved on."

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The great thing about this day and age was that there weren't security cameras.  She had learned how to bring back small to medium sized animals weeks ago.  Yesterday, she had worked on her first human.  A small girl was brought in on the verge of death.  A house had caught fire and collapsed, trapping the child within.  Sakura had been provided a calf born with two heads and not expected to survive another year with which to save the girl's life.  The trade wasn't quite equal.  The girl lived, but would remain scarred forever.

She was exhausted.  She had had to tap into her own life reserves to finish saving the child.  It was another valuable lesson.

It didn't matter to her than she was so tired.  She had to work.  She had to retrain her body.  She had to be ready to fight.  She had to be ready to kill again.

Nikko had said he would be releasing Sakura back to the Daimyo again very soon.  She was almost ready do do the work the Daimyo wanted of her.

She had to be ready to escape.  But what would she do?  When would she escape to?  She still had her promise to Nikkin to fulfill.

The space inside her rooms was small.  Her bedroom was only big enough for the bed and a dresser.  Her other room was a small examination room where she studied.  The bathing room she used was on the other end of the compound.  The outhouse she was allowed to use was the other direction.  Both of those rooms were cut off from her except when she had an escort.  Not to be deterred, she started off in the bedroom with push ups and such.  Small sprints and katas could be performed in the examination room.  It would have to be enough.

If she used chakra outside of training with Nikko, it would be noticed, stopped, and reported as attempted rebellion.  So, she would sneak in small sessions before Nikko would show up under the pretense of needing to warm up before the session started.

When the time came, she wouldn't be able to run as far as needed, her endurance levels being nothing compared to what they were before all this, but she would be able to disable the guard, leave him in an unfamiliar time, and then move on to the place where her children had last been seen.

It happened two days later.

Seeing as she was originally from farther in the future, Sakura knew she didn't have to strand her captor in the past.  She could take him a few years to the future and leave him.  That way, her escape could not be reported before it happened.  The Daimyo wouldn't know, her plan would go uninterrupted.

The guard, whom was surprised she hadn't tried anything before now, didn't hesitate to draw his dagger the moment they settled in a time some six years from the day they walked out of the temple.  Sakura was ready for it, blocked the blow with her arm, the blade cutting deep into her wrist.  Out of practice, her aim was way off.  But the devastation her fists could deliver was still on point.  Gritting against the pain, she punched him in the gut, sending him flying back.  His hand was still gripping the dagger, and, thus, it dug in and lodged into the bone before his hand was forced to let go from the strength of her blow pushing him away.

It was the first time since before she had married Kakashi that she'd taken a wound so bad.  She had forgotten such pain.  Shock was setting in, and she could only stare at her mangled wrist and hand in curiosity and horror for the moment.

Someone had seen.  She was rushed back to the temple.  Nikko wasn't there.  Someone else, someone whose name she didn't catch, removed the blade and did practical, non-chakra, surgery.  It was basic at best.  It took hours to bring her out of shock.  At that point, she decided, much to the alarm of those who were caring for her, to rip out the poor stitches and heal the wound on her own.  Now.   _Now_ she could train properly, though still secretly.

She worked and worked for weeks.  Every day she pushed farther.  She pushed and pushed until the guard that she had harmed awoke again.  He confronted her, tried again to take her life.  This time, she didn't bother hitting him.  She just left the time period again.  This time, she was able to push back farther.  She made it back to before she was even taken to the Daimyo, to Nikkin.  She had made it to the time, a few days after, her children were taken and subsequently attacked.

The bodies were rotting.  The party sent out to investigate had not arrived yet.  This was the perfect moment.  She only needed something to exchange.  But first, she had to identify the correct bodies.

She wasn't prepared for the way it would feel.  She didn't know that it would be Kazuo she would find first, crows eating at the bloated remains of his arm.  Sakura trapped the crows.  She would use them as part of the exchange for him.

When it came to Yoriko, well... if it weren't for the fact that hair kept its color so long, there would have been no recognizing her.  This time, Sakura did puke.  This was  _her_ baby.  What had they done?

It took a long time before Sakura could gather herself together enough to search.  There weren't many animals in the surrounding area that she could capture easily.  The crows were captured and bound with a net she had taken from a dead soldier's gear.  With her haste returning, she gave up and just pulled the bodies near the largest trees possible.  Kazuo was first.  His was the most intact body.  If she couldn't bring him back, she couldn't even attempt to help Yoriko.

The crows and most of the tree died.

Kazuo awoke fighting.  It took him a few seconds to recognize more than the death around them.  Sakura held him tight to her chest, keeping him from harming himself or her again.  The boy fell into quiet tears, clinging to her shirt.

"It was so dark, Aunt Meiko," he finally choked out.  "Yoriko and I... we were lost in the dark."

"Not anymore," Sakura assured.  "I'm going to keep you safe now.  You won't be going back."

"Where is Yoriko?"

"It will be time to wake her up soon," Sakura answered, drawing back a little.  "But... I'm going to need more to work with.  I need you to help me trap animals."

"Why?" Kazuo asked, confused.

"You will see," Sakura kissed his forehead.

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Sakura chose to leave Kazuo behind with his mother.  They went to live near the temple where Sakura had learned the skills it took to restore their lives.  For a while, Yoriko would have to stay with them.  Sakura had to go forward again, go forward, allow everything she knew to happen, and then destroy the system the next Daimyo would use.  She went straight to the palace.

It was simple, really, walk straight on in as if she were from the future reporting an issue the ruler would need to know about, take a meal with him privately, poison his drink.  As the aids worked to figure out what happened, she could break all the seals trapping the Haruno and Hatake prisoners on the other end of the property.

She set a small fire that grew rapidly as a distraction.  People were able to get out.  The fire itself was contained almost as fast as it spread.  Her point was made.  In the confusion, she slipped out of the palace compound and went back to the temple.  It was time to collect her daughter and try to get back to her own time again.

She wouldn't be coming back here.  That was for sure.

She asked Kazuo, aside from his mother, if he wanted to come with them, but the boy refused.  At least for now, he wanted to stay with his mother.  She understood.  All the different technology and ways of life in her time were too much for Kazuo, but not for his brother and cousins.  Not everyone was born for a different time than the one in which they lived.


End file.
